Word: braun
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...that the first brush of air resistance burns them up. The highest-flying rocket so far (the two-stage "Bumper WAC Corporal," which rose 250 miles) came back to earth with its steel fins partially fused. The recovery men shudder at the thought of what would happen to Von Braun's returning crews. Their red-hot spiral around the earth may be theoretically possible, but even a slight mischance would be fatal...
Specialized Difficulties. At White Sands Proving Ground, where most U.S. rockets are put to the test, Von Braun's theories are received with a mixture of fascination and alarm. Most rocket engineers, even the hard-handed practical ones, are deeply moved by the idea of space flight. But when they look closely at Von Braun's proposal, each man sees the worst difficulties in the specialty he knows best. Propulsion experts, for example, know that they must baby even a single rocket motor. They hate to think of making 51 of them fire properly and at the same...
...thing the space doctors are sure of: human bodies and nervous systems resent fluctuations of gravity. Moderate increases are not too bad if they do not last long. The crews of Von Braun's shuttle rockets would have to withstand nine "Gs" (nine times normal gravity) for brief periods as they left the earth. They could survive by lying on their backs on contour couches, say the space doctors, but they would not enjoy...
...Braun's bitterest critics, an important missile expert, says: "Look at this Von Braun! He is the man who lost the war for Hitler. His V-2 was a great engineering achievement, but it had almost no military effect and it drained German brains and material from more practical weapons. Von Braun has always wanted to be the Columbus of space. He was thinking of space flight, not weapons, when he sold the V-2 to Hitler. He says so himself. He is still thinking of space flight, not weapons, and he is trying to sell...
...each V-2," he said, "we could have built at least one jet fighter, and each jet fighter would have shot down at least one of your bombers, that have destroyed our country." The feeling of many (though not all) practical missile men is that Von Braun's satellite proposal would fail and would leave the U.S. without the new weapons it needs. These men think that the best way to achieve space flight, whether for military or peaceful reasons, is to continue with the present guided missile pro gram. Every success in this field, they say, will...