October 3

The Rocket That Changed the Future

1942 — The A-4 Rocket Makes Its First Successful Flight

Launch time not established

On October 3, 1942, a rocket rose from the German Army research center at Peenemünde on the Baltic coast. Known during development as the A-4, it would later become infamous under another name: V-2. The test vehicle climbed to an altitude of roughly 85–90 kilometers and traveled approximately 190 kilometers before falling back to Earth. It was the first successful flight of a machine unlike anything that had preceded it. The A-4 was a large, long-range, liquid-fueled ballistic rocket. Its engine burned alcohol and liquid oxygen and produced approximately 25 metric tons of thrust. An advanced guidance system controlled the vehicle during powered flight. Previous experimental rockets had demonstrated many of the principles involved. The American physicist Robert Goddard had successfully flown the world's first liquid-fueled rocket in 1926 and subsequently developed increasingly sophisticated rockets incorporating gyroscopic stabilization, pumps, and other technologies. German experimenters had also pursued liquid-fueled rocketry during the 1920s and 1930s. But the A-4 represented a dramatic increase in scale. The October 3 flight demonstrated that a large liquid-fueled rocket could climb to extreme altitude, follow a guided ballistic trajectory, and travel hundreds of kilometers. In purely technological terms, it was a milestone on the road toward spaceflight. But it was not built to explore space. It was built to carry an explosive warhead. Germany was at war, and the A-4 became the V-2, short for Vergeltungswaffe 2—“Vengeance Weapon 2.” Beginning in 1944, V-2 missiles were launched against London, Antwerp, and other targets. Unlike aircraft or earlier weapons, the V-2 descended toward its target at supersonic speed. No warning system could provide meaningful time to intercept it. Thousands of civilians and military personnel were killed or injured by V-2 attacks. Yet even that terrible toll does not encompass the weapon's human cost. Mass production was centered at the underground Mittelwerk factory, where prisoners from the Mittelbau-Dora concentration-camp system were subjected to forced labor under appalling conditions. Thousands died from starvation, disease, exhaustion, beatings, executions, and other abuse. More people died producing the V-2 than were killed by its operational use as a weapon. That history is inseparable from the rocket. After Germany's defeat in 1945, both the United States and Soviet Union sought German rocket hardware, documents, and specialists. The United States brought Wernher von Braun and more than one hundred other German rocket specialists to America through the program eventually known as Operation Paperclip. Captured V-2 rockets were transported to the United States and launched from White Sands, New Mexico, carrying scientific instruments into the upper atmosphere. The Soviet Union similarly obtained German hardware, facilities, documentation, and specialists. Soviet engineers studied and reproduced the technology before developing increasingly capable rockets of their own. The descendants of those programs eventually moved beyond weapons. In the United States, von Braun's team helped develop the Redstone, Jupiter, and Saturn rockets. The Saturn V carried astronauts to the Moon. In the Soviet Union, engineers under Sergei Korolev developed a different technological lineage culminating in the R-7, the rocket family that launched Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin and whose descendants continue to fly. The October 3, 1942, flight therefore occupies an uncomfortable but unavoidable place in space history. The rocket demonstrated technologies that would eventually help humanity reach beyond Earth. But it was created for war, under a dictatorship responsible for enormous crimes, and its later production depended upon murderous exploitation. Both truths belong in the story.

Why It Matters: The successful A-4 flight demonstrated technologies fundamental to later large liquid-fueled rockets and strongly influenced postwar rocket development in both the United States and Soviet Union. But its significance cannot be separated from its origin as a Nazi weapon and from the concentration-camp prisoners who suffered and died producing it. The history of spaceflight contains extraordinary achievements, but understanding that history also requires remembering the human costs embedded within some of its technological foundations.

 

Also on This Day

1962 — Wally Schirra Flies Sigma 7 Six Times Around Earth

Launch: 12:15:12 UTC

On October 3, 1962, astronaut Walter “Wally” Schirra climbed into the small Mercury spacecraft he had named Sigma 7. The name reflected the kind of mission he intended to fly. The Greek letter sigma is used in mathematics to represent summation. For Schirra, Sigma 7 represented the sum of the engineering work that had gone into Mercury—and the seven astronauts originally chosen for the program. At 12:15:12 UTC, an Atlas rocket lifted Sigma 7 from Cape Canaveral. Schirra became the fifth American in space and the third American to orbit Earth. John Glenn and Scott Carpenter had each completed three orbits earlier that year. Schirra would attempt six. The mission, officially designated Mercury-Atlas 8, emphasized engineering and spacecraft operations. One of its most important questions concerned resources. Mercury carried limited electrical power and maneuvering fuel. If future missions were to remain in space longer, astronauts would have to demonstrate that those resources could be conserved. Schirra deliberately allowed Sigma 7 to drift for extended periods rather than continuously controlling its attitude. The technique greatly reduced fuel consumption. He also conducted spacecraft tests, photographed Earth, made visual observations, and experimented with using stars for orientation. At one point Schirra transmitted a television message from orbit, one of the early live broadcasts from an American spacecraft. After six circuits of Earth, he prepared for reentry. His landing demonstrated another aspect of the mission's precision. Sigma 7 splashed down in the Pacific after 9 hours, 13 minutes, and 11 seconds in flight. The spacecraft landed only a few miles from the recovery carrier USS Kearsarge. It was the first crewed American orbital mission to end with a Pacific Ocean splashdown. Schirra later described Sigma 7 as a “textbook flight.” The characterization was appropriate. Mercury was becoming less about proving that an American could survive orbit and more about demonstrating that people and spacecraft could operate there predictably and efficiently. Schirra would later become the only astronaut to fly in all three of America's pioneering human-spaceflight programs: Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo.

Why It Matters: Sigma 7 demonstrated disciplined spacecraft operation, fuel conservation, and precise reentry during America's longest orbital mission to that point. Mercury was evolving from an experiment in human survival into the foundation for the more complex operations required by Gemini and Apollo.

1985 — Atlantis Makes Its First Flight

15:15:30 UTC

On October 3, 1985, another spacecraft began a much longer career. At 15:15:30 UTC, Space Shuttle Atlantis lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on mission STS-51J. It was Atlantis's first journey into space. Atlantis was the fourth operational orbiter constructed for NASA's Space Shuttle fleet, following Columbia, Challenger, and Discovery. Its first mission was unusual because much of what it carried and accomplished was classified. STS-51J was a dedicated mission for the United States Department of Defense. Commander Karol Bobko led a five-person crew consisting of pilot Ronald Grabe and mission specialists David Hilmers, Robert Stewart, and William Pailes. The mission's primary payload involved military communications satellites. Because of the classified nature of the flight, NASA's normal public coverage stopped shortly after Atlantis reached orbit. After four days in space, Atlantis landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California on October 7. Its first mission was complete. But the orbiter's career was only beginning. Atlantis would eventually become one of the most important vehicles in the Shuttle fleet. It launched the Magellan spacecraft toward Venus in 1989. Later that year, it launched Galileo toward Jupiter. In 1991, Atlantis carried the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, one of NASA's Great Observatories, into orbit. During the 1990s, Atlantis became closely associated with the Shuttle-Mir program, completing multiple dockings with the Russian space station and helping build experience in international long-duration operations. It later played a major role in assembling and servicing the International Space Station. And on July 8, 2011, Atlantis lifted off on STS-135, the final mission of the entire Space Shuttle program. The spacecraft that began its career with a classified military mission on October 3, 1985, therefore ended it almost 26 years later by closing one of the most recognizable chapters in the history of human spaceflight.

Why It Matters: STS-51J began the 33-mission career of Space Shuttle Atlantis. Over the following quarter century, the orbiter would launch major planetary and astronomical spacecraft, help pioneer cooperation with Mir, support construction of the International Space Station, and ultimately fly the final mission of the Space Shuttle era.

 

The Bigger Picture

October 3 offers an unusually concentrated view of the evolution of the rocket. In 1942, the A-4 demonstrated that a large liquid-fueled rocket could travel to extraordinary altitude and range. Twenty years later, an Atlas rocket carried Wally Schirra into orbit. Twenty-three years after that, Atlantis climbed toward space using a combination of reusable liquid-fueled engines and enormous solid rocket boosters. Technologically, it is tempting to draw a simple line: A-4 → ballistic missiles → launch vehicles → human spaceflight → reusable spacecraft. There is truth in that progression. But it is incomplete. Technology does not carry its own moral purpose. A rocket engine can accelerate a warhead toward a city. A related technology can carry a scientific instrument above Earth's atmosphere. Another can place a human being into orbit. Still another can launch a probe toward Jupiter. The physical laws are the same. The purposes are not. That distinction is particularly important on October 3. The people who suffered and died in the V-2 program should not disappear from the history simply because technologies developed there later contributed to space exploration. Nor should the history imply that modern spaceflight emerged from one nation or one group alone. Robert Goddard's pioneering experiments in the United States, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky's theoretical work in Russia, Hermann Oberth's writings and experiments in Europe, Soviet engineering under Sergei Korolev, American research, and contributions from thousands of engineers and scientists across many countries all belong to the much larger story. By the time Schirra flew Sigma 7, the rocket had become a means of placing a human being into orbit. By the time Atlantis flew, rockets had become part of a transportation system capable of carrying people, satellites, observatories, and planetary spacecraft. October 3 therefore gives us something more complicated than a story of technological progress. It asks us to remember that the history of exploration contains both achievement and responsibility. Understanding how we reached space means remembering both.

At a Glance

1942 — Launch time not established — The A-4 makes its first successful test flight from Peenemünde, demonstrating large-scale liquid-fueled ballistic-rocket technology that will strongly influence postwar missile and space-launch development.

1962 — 12:15:12 UTC — Wally Schirra launches aboard Sigma 7 on Mercury-Atlas 8, completing six Earth orbits during a 9-hour, 13-minute engineering mission.

1985 — 15:15:30 UTC — Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on STS-51J for its maiden flight, beginning a 33-mission career that will continue through the final Space Shuttle mission in 2011.