The Stars Above: An Alternate Space Race

[IncongruousGoat]

A/N: This is my first attempt at a serious timeline. All comments, suggestions, and critiques are welcome.

Chapter 1:

It was the spring of 1955, and planning for the upcoming International Geophysical Year was in full swing. President Eisenhower had just ordered the formation of a committee to decide on which proposal to fund for the IGY satellite project, as part of the United States' contribution to the international effort. Headed by Homer J. Stewart of JPL, the committee also held two representatives each from the Army, Navy, and Air Force, as well as two men selected by Assistant Secretary of Defense Donald Quarles: Joseph Kaplan, head of the American IGY committee, and William Pickering, the director of JPL. [1]

The administration's requirements were simple: The proposal that the committee selected had to be a civilian project, in order to establish the overflight rights that would be needed for the operation of spy satellites over Soviet territory, and should not interfere with any ongoing missile development project. In the end, three proposals were presented to the committee, one each from the Army, Navy, and Air Force.

Of the three, the Army's Project Orbiter was the cheapest and most technically developed. Using a Redstone rocket with successive clusters of Baby Sergeant solid rockets as an upper stage and a payload provided by JPL, Project Orbiter's Jupiter-C vehicle used entirely existing technology and facilities. However, its close association with the Army and von Braun made it a politically difficult sell.

The Air Force's World Series proposed stacking an Aerobee sounding rocket on top of an Atlas A missile. Unfortunately, the proposal was effectively dead on arrival. The Air Force brass had no interest in a satellite project, or in any project that would delay the development of the national security essential Atlas ICBM.

The Navy's Project Vanguard, by contrast, was for all practical purposes a new vehicle. Using a modified Viking rocket as a first stage, an Aerobee-derived second stage, and an all-new solid third stage, Vanguard would require substantially more development work than either Project Orbiter or the World Series. However, it was much more politically favorable than the other proposals. Unlike the other two, it was a strictly civilian project, developed by the Naval Research Laboratory, and it wouldn't interfere with any ongoing missile program.

Political favorability, however, would not be enough. Pickering, looking to see a payload built by his lab launched into orbit, pitched Project Orbiter to the committee as a civilian project, run and supervised by JPL, with the Army' involvement limited to production of the first stage. The army delegation additionally assured the committee that the project would not interfere with Jupiter development. Any work done for Project Orbiter would transfer directly to the work the Army would have been doing with the missile anyways. These arguments and assurances were enough to persuade Kaplan, who had originally backed Project Vanguard. The Air Force, dislike of the Army and von Braun notwithstanding, put their support behind the Army proposal soon after. In the end, they didn't care whose proposal got funded, so long as it wasn't theirs. Stewart, for his part, had been supportive of Project Orbiter from the beginning. This left only the Navy in support of Project Vanguard. While they argued long and hard in favor of Vanguard (and would continue to do so months after the decision had been finalized), the rest of the committee had come to a consensus, and promptly presented their results to the Eisenhower Administration. After some discussion with JPL and von Braun's team as to the exact nature of the project's leadership and civilian status, the administration approved the committee's decision.

Project Orbiter had been selected to launch America's first satellite.

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[1] This is the POD. OTL, Richard Porter got appointed instead of Pickering. The same Richard Porter who helped develop the Project Vanguard proposal in the first place. No wonder it got selected over Project Orbiter.

 

[jammci]

Always nice to read a space thread. Watched.

 

[RanulfC]

IncongruousGoat wrote:
[qutoe]A/N: This is my first attempt at a serious timeline. All comments, suggestions, and critiques are welcome.[/quote]

You had me at “Space” but we knew that

POD note though, Eisenhower rather than the committee made the final decision in that he made it known he did NOT want the project to take any effort away from the Air Force missile program AND that he would not be favorable to giving the job to that “bunch of ex-Nazi’s” (though the majority of the animus seems directed towards Von Braun specifically) at Redstone. He was clear that the ‘winner’ had to have at least a gloss of being more “civilian” than military as he was aware of the proposed uses of satellites (reconnaissance primarily) and he didn’t want to give the Soviets any more reason to cry foul than needed. Hence “Vanguard” was really the only choice as the Office of Naval Research was an internationally respected and known ‘science’ rather than ‘military’ organization.

A technical note, the Air Force Atlas was NOT “as developed” as Project Orbiter since the Atlas had not flown yet whereas the Redstone had. And of the committee having the one member, (can’t find the name at the moment) who was not in attendance the day the vote was taken but who had favored “Project Orbiter” being present might give enough power to the Committee to override Eisenhower’s reluctance. Also I’d wonder if the Navy would fight very hard for Vanguard as they had initially negotiated with the Army on a possible joint satellite program where the Army would provide the launcher and the Navy the satellite. (At the time the Navy had the most advanced micro-electronics work being done but no launch vehicles that were usable) Probably Project Orbiter's greatest downside was Von Braun hadn't worked with or talked to any scientist and the assumptions made were questionable in many regards and any 'science' was a distant second to simply putting something in orbit. (No radio transmitter was included because they expected to track the satellite optically. That also meant no telemetry or down-link)

Now if Ike gets the Army for LV, the Navy for the satellite and the Air Force for tracking and ground control... Aw, who am I kidding "inter-service rivalry" was so bad at the time they (the Air Force specifically) tended to actively sabotage each others projects.... Hopefully this goes better

Randy
(Watched btw )

 

[IncongruousGoat]

@RanulfC You raise some excellent points. To address them:

Here, I'm having JPL take a much more active role in Project Orbiter, since both parties know that it's the only way the project is going to get off the ground. OTL, JPL developed Explorer 1 when Project Orbiter was finally greenlit in December 1957. I'm just accelerating their involvement in the program by 2.5 years. You need some civilian organization to get heavily involved with Project Orbiter to make it have any chance of getting approval, and I picked JPL since they were already developing the upper stage engines, were a prime candidate for developing the payload, and had ties to the Army. If you're wondering how, exactly, JPL got involved, Pickering and Stewart brought it up with the Army reps at the committee. Both parties agreed that having JPL on board was required to have the project succeed. As for why the Navy's arguing so hard for Vanguard over Orbiter, it's a mixture of inter-service rivalry and the general dislike of von Braun. Mostly dislike for von Braun.

As for how developed Atlas was: while Atlas was not as developed as Redstone, it's more developed than Vanguard, seeing as Atlas hardware had been in development for 4 years at that point. I'm just trying to get Project Orbiter off the ground earlier - I'm not crazy enough to try and get the World Series to fly, not to mention the fact that it probably wouldn't have worked anyways. It had all of Atlas-Able's flaws, except worse. Nor am I going to try and accelerate the development of Atlas. You're right, though; I did unintentionally exaggerate how developed Atlas was in 1955. I'll go correct that.

 

[RanulfC]

@RanulfC You raise some excellent points. To address them:

Here, I'm having JPL take a much more active role in Project Orbiter, since both parties know that it's the only way the project is going to get off the ground. OTL, JPL developed Explorer 1 when Project Orbiter was finally greenlit in December 1957. I'm just accelerating their involvement in the program by 2.5 years. You need some civilian organization to get heavily involved with Project Orbiter to make it have any chance of getting approval, and I picked JPL since they were already developing the upper stage engines, were a prime candidate for developing the payload, and had ties to the Army. If you're wondering how, exactly, JPL got involved, Pickering and Stewart brought it up with the Army reps at the committee. Both parties agreed that having JPL on board was required to have the project succeed. As for why the Navy's arguing so hard for Vanguard over Orbiter, it's a mixture of inter-service rivalry and the general dislike of von Braun. Mostly dislike for von Braun.

Plausible though I'll note the latter issue, (dislike of Von Braun ) was oddly enough because he'd made "space" popular which annoyed general scientist for some reason. I'd known that JPL had worked on Explorer 1 but it was admitted at the time that even IF Orbiter had been chosen the ONR would probably have to have a part since they did (at the time) have a world wide reputation as the leading science and instrument developers. Oddly enough the Army and Navy were actually cooperating at that point in time on the initial "Jupiter" missile where the Army would build the missile and the Navy the guidance system. When the Air Force was forced to begin development on an IRBM (Thor) initially the Army suggested they include the Air Force in the design of Jupiter and build it for them. Certain personaltites refused to even consider the olive branch and the Air Force went on to develop it's "own" design using the parts the Army had built for Jupiter.

As for how developed Atlas was: while Atlas was not as developed as Redstone, it's more developed than Vanguard, seeing as Atlas hardware had been in development for 4 years at that point. I'm just trying to get Project Orbiter off the ground earlier - I'm not crazy enough to try and get the World Series to fly, not to mention the fact that it probably wouldn't have worked anyways. It had all of Atlas-Able's flaws, except worse. Nor am I going to try and accelerate the development of Atlas. You're right, though; I did unintentionally exaggerate how developed Atlas was in 1955. I'll go correct that.

Actually you don't have to, since according to the Air Force "Atlas" would be the perfect rocket and work the first time and every time Ignore that inconvenient fireball on the launch pad that's either a Navy or Army test obviously. As an aside Project Orbiter should have been the obvious choice but given Eisenhower's bias and preference and his similar bias' and preferences' vis-a-vis defense spending in general, (the Air Force and A/H-bomb is all we need and everything else can be handled by the CIA...) the biggest missed opportunity goes whizzing right on by...

I'm actually an AF vet and frankly I'm often embarrassed at how my service took being granted 'independence' and ran with it. If ones grown children had displayed HALF the hubris and sanctimonious behavior the AF did one would be well within their rights to both disown them AND demand re-compensation for lost time and effort in raising them! "World Series" wasn't the first or last time the Air Force would insist they had a "better" system on paper than anything anyone had actually working but it began the space related series which would continue all the way through MOL. I keep taking notes on a timeline where the Air Force gets the Space Launch System (1960 version) and the actual manned space flight mission but I keep running into how fast that becomes a technical dystopia when their luck runs out

Randy

 

[IncongruousGoat]

Chapter 2:

With the proposal formally accepted, work on Project Orbiter began in earnest. The Army team, headed by Dr. Wernher von Braun, got down to work on designing and testing the fuel, engine, tank, and guidance modifications needed to turn a Redstone missile into the first stage of the Project Orbiter launch vehicle. The team at JPL were also hard at work designing the rotating drum mechanism that would be used to spin up the upper stage assembly before ignition of the second stage, as well as the upper stages themselves and the all-important payload.The original Project Orbiter proposal, as written in 1954, did not consider any payload beyond an inert mass. The involvement of JPL in the project before its presentation to the Stewart Committee, however, changed that. An inert mass was all well and good as far as testing the launch vehicle was concerned, but it would not have been useful as a scientific instrument. The cylindrical, 3-foot payload, designed under the direction of Dr. James Van Allen of the University of Iowa, contained a Geiger-Mueller detector for measuring cosmic rays, five thermometers, and two instruments for detecting micrometeorite impacts: an acoustic detector and a wire grid. Power would be provided by a battery with enough charge for roughly four months of operation.

Work on the first stage progressed quickly. By September 18, the first test rocket sat on the pad at Cape Canaveral, a dummy upper stage mounted to the booster. At 4:41 PM EST, the rocket lifted off into the skies above Florida. It became rapidly apparent, however, that something was seriously wrong with the vehicle. LOX tank and combustion chamber pressure had dropped 50 seconds into flight. Fin 1's temperature was outside of measurable range 12 seconds later, and the guidance system suffered multiple failures not long after that. At t+80 seconds, the range safety officer gave the cutoff signal. It would be several months before the next test flight, on November 28. This time, nothing went obviously wrong, with the missile flying until burnout without any malfunctions. The impact point, however, was about 200 km off from where it was supposed to be. Test launches would continue through the spring of 1956 as von Braun's team slowly perfected the inertial guidance system, only interrupted by the consolidation of all Army missile work under the newly-formed Army Ballistic Missile Agency in February 1956.

Work on the upper stage and payload progressed rather more quickly. Thiokol shipped the first Baby Sergeant motors to the JPL team at White Sands in March 1956, with test firings of clustered Baby Sergeants beginning almost immediately. These tests culminated in a full test firing of the upper stage stack, including the rotating drum, in May 1956. The ungainly assembly shot into the skies above New Mexico, with observations confirming successful separation and ignition of both the three-engine cluster and the one-engine final stage. All the pieces of the Project Orbiter launch vehicle, christened Vesta by the team at JPL, had come together. All that remained was to build the payload.

Design of the payload proceeded quickly, with completion predicted for mid-June. Persistent problems with both the communications equipment and power supply, however, delayed certification by a whole month, with certification of all systems only occurring by mid-July. Transport to the pad and re-verification ate up even more time, pushing the launch date back into the first, and then the second week of August. On August 12, 1956 the first Vesta rocket sat on the pad at Cape Canaveral, with the Explorer 1 satellite mounted on the fourth stage. After several hours of holds to resolve various technical issues, the countdown reached t-0 at 3:12 PM. The rocket soared into a clear, cloudless sky, rapidly climbing and disappearing from view. At t+155s the first stage shut down, the drum assembly spun up, and the second stage fired. Six second later, the third stage fired, and the fourth stage fired six seconds after that. Ten minutes after liftoff, optical tracking confirmed that all three solid kick stages had fired correctly. Explorer 1 had been successfully placed in orbit.

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Chapter 1 errata (now corrected):
1. The solid boosters used for Project Orbiter are Baby Sergeants, not Lokis.

2. The ABMA wasn't founded until 1956. The original proposal was put forward by von Braun's team.

 

[IncongruousGoat]

Chapter 3:

The launch of Explorer 1 made headlines across the United States and across the world. To some, the launch heralded the dawn of a new age of exploration. To others, it was yet further proof of the technological superiority of the United States. Domestic publications applauded the successes of both von Braun's team in Huntsville and the JPL team in Pasadena, while foreign publications congratulated the United States on their latest technological marvel. Even Pravda ran an article, although the Soviet publication downplayed the importance of the launch, instead emphasizing the USSR's plans to launch a satellite of its own during the IGY.

In Washington, however, the mood was not quite so celebratory. President Eisenhower was still dissatisfied with the involvement of ABMA in Project Orbiter. Overflight rights had been successfully established; Explorer 1 was unambiguously an instrument of science, operated by a civilian organization. However, the Army had still been involved in its development, and Eisenhower was reluctant to allow the military-industrial complex to expand into space. NACA were also clamoring for the creation of a civilian space agency, citing their own organization as precedent for the establishment of such an agency. In November 1956, Congress ordered the formation of the Select Committee on Aeronautics and Space Exploration, to compose a legislative solution to the issue. Several months of deliberation and political bickering by the committee eventually produced the National Aeronautics and Space Act. The bill made it through Congress with a couple of minor amendments, and was signed into law by President Eisenhower on February 23, 1957.

The National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1957 served several purposes. Most importantly, it created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a central, civilian agency reporting directly to Congress that would oversee all future civilian spaceflight ventures conducted by the government of the United States. The Act also laid out the purpose and goals of future aeronautical and space research conducted by the United States. The majority of the purposes were for the furtherance of human knowledge or the development of aeronautical and space technologies and vehicles; the line mandating the preservation of United States superiority in space was included almost as an afterthought. The bill also provided provisions for military-civilian and international cooperation in space, established the status of intellectual property created by NASA in pursuit of its goals, and mandated transfer of all NACA functions and resources to the newly-created NASA.

The next several months were spent consolidating and re-organizing various programs and organizations under the umbrella of NASA. The whole of JPL, as well as von Braun's team in Huntsville, were transferred to the new organization, banishing any lingering doubts over Project Orbiter's civilian status. Portions of the NRL were also folded into NASA, including the remnants of Project Vanguard. While nobody had any intention of actually building and flying the Vanguard rocket as described in the proposal, the design work that had been done for it would inform decisions in launch vehicle and spacecraft design for some time to come.

While this consolidation work was going on, however, the Project Orbiter team were hard at work launching more payloads into orbit, as testing and preparation for the all-important IGY launch in 1957. After the launch of Explorer 1, 3 more Vesta I rockets and Explorer 1 class satellites were launched. The first two of these suffered launch failures, due to a defective third-stage solid rocket and a glitch in the still-experimental guidance system. Explorer 4, however, managed to achieve orbit on December 1, 1956, and with it came an intriguing discovery. Radiation measurements from Explorer 1 had recorded unexpectedly low cosmic ray intensities in near-Earth space. Several theories were put forward, including one by Dr. Van Allen, the principal investigator. He proposed that the instrumentation had been overwhelmed by passage through a band of cosmic radiation, trapped in Earth's magnetic field. Explorer 4 carried more sensitive cosmic ray detection equipment than Explorer 1, as a test of instrumentation that would be flown during the IGY, as well as a tape recorder that would allow collection of a complete radiation history for each orbit. The data returned confirmed what had been posited after the launch of Explorer 1: Earth was surrounded by a belt of radiation, dubbed the Van Allen belt in honor of its discoverer.

 

[Kloka]

So,how long a period will this timeline cover?

 

[IncongruousGoat]

So,how long a period will this timeline cover?

I intend to cover at least up through the first manned lunar landing, but I haven't planned it that far out yet. I've got a general idea for when I want them to happen, but no concrete plans for how they come about or are going to look. Anything after that will depend on how inspired I feel to write more/how out of control it's gotten.

However, this TL is currently on hold until I can produce a draft of chapter 4 that I don't absolutely hate. I know what I want to put in it, more or less, and I know where I'm going with the stuff I'm putting in it, but I can't seem to write it up in an even semi-satisfactory way.