Jul 22, 2019 10:42 PM
https://www.airspacemag.com/daily-planet...180972695/
EXCERPT: On this 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, there is a popular misconception that America’s plans to land on the moon began with President Kennedy’s historic “before this decade is out” speech to Congress in May 1961. [...] But the shock of Sputnik had pushed the U.S. military to start thinking about lunar landings years earlier.
In January 1958, just three months after the Sputnik 1 launch, General Homer Boushey—who had pioneered rocket-assisted flight as a pilot in the 1940s—publicly announced that the Air Force was making plans to establish a military base on the lunar surface. At the time the Army and Air Force were wrestling for control of the strategic missile arsenal, and both services had a logical claim and a hope that this would lead to control of the nation’s fledgling space program as well.
One of President Dwight Eisenhower’s first actions in response to the perceived threat of Sputnik was to create a new agency within the Department of Defense to coordinate advanced technology programs. The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), established in February 1958, was given the authority to choose how the space program would move forward. By the end of the month, without any of the conventional political horse-trading, ARPA chose a winner. Air Force leaders were informed that they would be in charge of the nation’s space efforts, which led to a rush of activity and creative planning—which very soon focused on the moon as a target.
Project LUMAN - Within a month of ARPA’s decision, Air Force General Bernard Schriever ... directed a development plan for sending military astronauts to the moon by 1964. [...But...] Eisenhower had announced his decision to create a new civilian space agency called NASA. The Air Force continued to press its case for a military space program, however. For several months a debate went back and forth about the need for a defensive capability on the new high frontier. Eventually it was decided that the Air Force could continue its space planning, as long as it could prove a military requirement.
Project Horizon - The U.S. Army, meanwhile, had been shut out of the space program by ARPA’s decision, despite having Wernher von Braun’s team of ace German rocket scientists in Huntsville, Alabama. [...] their plan, which they called Project Horizon ... would have used a space station as an orbiting construction and refueling site for a lunar lander.
[...] Project MALLAR - All this talk of moon bases at the Pentagon during 1959 ... stimulated several top aerospace contractors to begin their own internal studies for advanced spaceflight. While Boeing focused on the winged Dyna-Soar for the Air Force, the Chance Vought Company in Dallas, Texas, put hundreds of person-hours into a concept called Project MALLAR (Manned Lunar Landing and Return). ... NASA Langley engineer John Houbolt created MALLIR (Manned Lunar Landing Involving Rendezvous), which was in many respects very similar to MALLAR, incorporating a three-module system and a lunar orbit rendezvous. Within a year MALLIR had evolved into Apollo.
Project LUNEX - Four days after Kennedy’s May 1961 speech directed NASA to aim for the moon, in a last-ditch attempt to stay involved in lunar exploration, the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division delivered its plans for a human moon expedition named LUNEX. It would use a six million-pound-thrust cryogenic launcher for a “direct” ascent to the moon. A crew of three would have a ten-day journey to the moon and back inside a “lifting body” that would act as both lunar lander and reentry vehicle. LUNEX would have benefited from all the groundwork laid for Dyna-Soar and MISSOPH III. But the plan disappeared almost as soon as it was proposed. (MORE - details)
EXCERPT: On this 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, there is a popular misconception that America’s plans to land on the moon began with President Kennedy’s historic “before this decade is out” speech to Congress in May 1961. [...] But the shock of Sputnik had pushed the U.S. military to start thinking about lunar landings years earlier.
In January 1958, just three months after the Sputnik 1 launch, General Homer Boushey—who had pioneered rocket-assisted flight as a pilot in the 1940s—publicly announced that the Air Force was making plans to establish a military base on the lunar surface. At the time the Army and Air Force were wrestling for control of the strategic missile arsenal, and both services had a logical claim and a hope that this would lead to control of the nation’s fledgling space program as well.
One of President Dwight Eisenhower’s first actions in response to the perceived threat of Sputnik was to create a new agency within the Department of Defense to coordinate advanced technology programs. The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), established in February 1958, was given the authority to choose how the space program would move forward. By the end of the month, without any of the conventional political horse-trading, ARPA chose a winner. Air Force leaders were informed that they would be in charge of the nation’s space efforts, which led to a rush of activity and creative planning—which very soon focused on the moon as a target.
Project LUMAN - Within a month of ARPA’s decision, Air Force General Bernard Schriever ... directed a development plan for sending military astronauts to the moon by 1964. [...But...] Eisenhower had announced his decision to create a new civilian space agency called NASA. The Air Force continued to press its case for a military space program, however. For several months a debate went back and forth about the need for a defensive capability on the new high frontier. Eventually it was decided that the Air Force could continue its space planning, as long as it could prove a military requirement.
Project Horizon - The U.S. Army, meanwhile, had been shut out of the space program by ARPA’s decision, despite having Wernher von Braun’s team of ace German rocket scientists in Huntsville, Alabama. [...] their plan, which they called Project Horizon ... would have used a space station as an orbiting construction and refueling site for a lunar lander.
[...] Project MALLAR - All this talk of moon bases at the Pentagon during 1959 ... stimulated several top aerospace contractors to begin their own internal studies for advanced spaceflight. While Boeing focused on the winged Dyna-Soar for the Air Force, the Chance Vought Company in Dallas, Texas, put hundreds of person-hours into a concept called Project MALLAR (Manned Lunar Landing and Return). ... NASA Langley engineer John Houbolt created MALLIR (Manned Lunar Landing Involving Rendezvous), which was in many respects very similar to MALLAR, incorporating a three-module system and a lunar orbit rendezvous. Within a year MALLIR had evolved into Apollo.
Project LUNEX - Four days after Kennedy’s May 1961 speech directed NASA to aim for the moon, in a last-ditch attempt to stay involved in lunar exploration, the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division delivered its plans for a human moon expedition named LUNEX. It would use a six million-pound-thrust cryogenic launcher for a “direct” ascent to the moon. A crew of three would have a ten-day journey to the moon and back inside a “lifting body” that would act as both lunar lander and reentry vehicle. LUNEX would have benefited from all the groundwork laid for Dyna-Soar and MISSOPH III. But the plan disappeared almost as soon as it was proposed. (MORE - details)
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