Looking forward to this video immensely! In the late 70's I got to see my New Zealand born idol Sir William Pickering the Director of JPL at the time of this immortal 'victory' photo, in person in Wellington NZ, where he was visiting his home town. Such an inspiring moment to talk to him in person, and a continuation of the inspiration to continue in the computer / tech industry in which I had begun my career!
My lifeline eclipses the entirety of the space age to this point (born December 1953). I feel honored to have witnessed the last three Moon shots from the vicinity of the Cape, and a couple Shuttle launches too.
@@marsspacex6065 Whatever. We shall see. I'd be more enthusiastic if the head of SpaceX wasn't an unstable, megalomaniacal, man-child. Musk is standing on the shoulders of giants. NASA is king, and without their groundwork and infrastructure, he would be nowhere.
Wonderful production, thorough research, and fascinating content. ! In Space , if JPL can't do it , then no one can ! Just love the early days of Rocketry...!
I was 7 years old when Sputnik (pronounced "spootnik") was launched. My father read in the newspaper that it would be visible in the night sky at a certain time, so we walked to a clear area and saw a bright object moving in the sky. Recently, I read that what we were actually seeing was the third stage of the booster rocket. But that was something. This year, I saw the International Space Station pass overhead and I was reminded of the experience with my father. The man in the middle at 47:22 of the video, holding a model of the Vanguard satellite between Pickering and Von Braun, is James Van Allen.
It's quite an interesting insight into Von Braun's story. We're always led to believe he was the high flyer (no pun intended) that he got his way and *got away* with anything.
Brilliant, thank you. I was born in '63 and from the age of 5 was enthralled by the space race, so this all pre-dates me. I think maybe RocketLab chose the wrong name for the new engine they're designing for their Neutron rocket....they already have the Rutherford. I think professor Pickering deserves the honour of a rocket engine named after another Kiwi. (Archimedes was pretty clever though!) 😉
This video slightly misrepresents the role of the German engineers in the White Sands launch campaigns and the Bumper WAC. The White Sands V2 work was performed by General Electric with occasional consultation by Germans. Also, one of the key reasons why the Army increasingly relied on the Germans under von Braun was that both GE and JPL were getting out of the rocket business; GE to focus on jet engines and JPL to focus on space science (as so well recounted here). Excellent video though!
I'd really like to know the answer to this question. Why is it called "Jet Propulsion Laboratory," JPL, when, right from its inception, it was involved (according to the narration) exclusively in rocket propulsion? RPL? Why not? Any help would be appreciated.
In the 1930s the word 'rocket' was frowned upon in academic circles as the work of amateurs (rocket clubs). The proposal that led to the creation of JPL was by Caltech, an academic institution. The second reason is that that same proposal was to build some 'jet-like' rockets attached to the wings of planes to get them into the air They were given the name "JATOs" or Jet Assisted Take Offs. So the name "Jet" stuck.
Von Braun did work for the army of his country. Developing potential weapons. He did so even before 1933. And without the benefits of armchair historians hindsight it's difficult to see, how he could have known about the "evil regime" before it was too late Korelev did the same btw. Had there been a hot cold war, it would have been Korelevs missiles delivering nuclear warheads to western cities. He didn't mind either. Neither did Oppenheimer, Teller or Feynman. I'm sure the 2-300.000 victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were glad the good guys did it, not an evil regime.
Not True! Werner would have been shot or sent to prison if he hadn't done his work for the Nazies... He was saving his own life... I'm sure he knew and cared about the ramifications of his work... It was no coincidence that Pickering was at the Soviet Embassy on the night of Sputniks launch...
There is no doubt that when/or if fusion is practical for energy production, for the first few decades (at least) the equipment will be too massive for space flight.
21:23. Gen. Medaris later left the Army and became an Episcopal Priest. The Glenn Martin Company was the prime contractor on the Vanguard missile for the Navy. Unfortunately, all the experienced engineers at Martin were already dedicated to the Titan ICBM project. Vanguard was an orphan. Von Braun should have done twenty years for the atrocities that occurred at Mittelwerk. Sputnik singlehandedly caused a reevaluation and renovation of the American education system, particularly at the secondary school level.
The Americans were always second because they always had to look good. Its the reason the Russians beat the US into manned space, Soviets just do it, America needs to look good.
it's the work these men and women did that is responsible for Space X's reliability and cadence today. The design doctrine of SpaceX rocket design is to take free NASA rockets and simplify them with modern design tech and materials.
i love the achievements you people made but i hate the fact that your not transparent about the findings and that you are hiding the truth about Mars and the life that is present. it's a big shame that a small group of people are surpressing humankind collective conciousness !
