In 'Analysis of Orbital Systems,' a paper read at the fifth congress of the International Astronautical Federation in Innsbruck, Austria, Krafft Ehricke described a four-man orbital station. Arguing that a very large space station was neither necessary nor desirable, Ehricke postulated a four-man design that might serve a number of different purposes, depending upon altitude and orbital inclination. He suggested that such a station might be used for a multitude of scientific research, for orbital reconnaissance, for an observation platform, and as a launch site for more distant space ventures. The station would be launched initially by a large multistaged booster and subsequently visited by crews and resupplied by means of smaller ferry rockets.

Various nuclear warheads were considered for the Navaho. The G-26 would only be capable of carrying the XW-12, XW-5, or XW-13 fission warheads, or the XW-15 thermonuclear device. North American proposed that the production Navaho be enlarged to carry a 4500 kg payload in a 148 inch x 70 inch diameter envelope. This would allow a high-yield thermonuclear device to be carried.

Mr. Trevor Gardner, Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force for Research and Development, recommended to Air Force Chief of Staff General Nathan Twining, that the Air Force ballistic missile programs be reorganized.The "new" program would be provided with centralized management authority. The change was recommended to minimize the existing complexities and to focus attention on the importance of the program.

A Rand Corporation memorandum by Dr. Bruno W. Augenstein indicated that the Atlas ballistic missile (Project MX-1593) could be operational by the early 1960s. The missile, then , then under development by Consolidated-Vultee Aircraft Corporation (Convair), could make that date if the existing stringent performance criteria were relaxed while funding and program priority were increased.

The Strategic Missiles Evaluation ("Teapot") Committee, established in October 1953 and chaired by Professor John von Neumann, submitted its report on intercontinental strategic missiles. Convair's ICBM design was feasible, as was acceleration of the program. The von Neumann Committee recommended changes similar to those outlined in the Rand study of 8 February. In addition, the report urged the establishment of a development-management group with sufficient authority, funds, and priority to reorient and accelerate the ballistic missile program.

Trevor Gardner, Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force for Research and Development, held a meeting in Washington. Included were representatives of the Air Research and Development Command (ARDC). Headquarters USAF, certain former members of the von Neumann Committee, and concerned contractor personnel. Among the problems discussed was the manner of meshing the scientific and technical operations in ballistic missile development with the prime contractor who would actually build the missiles. Finally it was agreed that the scientific-technical group recommended by the Strategic Missiles Evaluation Committee would be placed under an industrial contractor or university and would be balanced by an Air Force organization set up to supervise the whole show.

The United States exploded its first "droppable" hydrogen bomb in the Marshall Islands. A second U.S. thermonuclear device was successfully tested on 20 March. These tests as part of Operation Castle confirmed the feasibility of the development of lightweight, high-yield thermonuclear weapons. This advance allowed the previously restrictive performance characteristics of the Atlas to be relaxed to the point where continued development was within the existing "state-of-the-art."

As a result of the 26 February meeting, Trevor Gardner submitted a plan for accelerating the intercontinental ballistic missile system (IBMS) program. This was sent to Secretary of the Air Force Harold E Talbott and Air Force Chief of Staff General Nathan Twining. The plan called for emergency funding and an operational capability as early as 1958-60. Mr. Gardner also recommended that high-ranking military officers be placed in charge of the revised program and specifically named Major General James McCormack, Jr., Vice Commander of ARDC, and Brigadier General Bernard A. Schriever, then Assistant for Development Planning, Deputy Chief of Staff/Development, Headquarters USAF, for the top positions.

The Air Force Council recommended to the Chief of Staff that the Atlas missile's performance specifications be relaxed so that the program could be accelerated as much as possible. It also recommended the use of Air Force funds to finance the program, a reorientation of the program to achieve the earliest possible operational capability, the assignment of program responsibility to Air Research and Development Command, and the establishment of a special development-management organization to recommend further measures to accelerate the entire Atlas program.

The XN-1 inertial system had been replaced by the XN-2 stellar/inertial system in 1951. The XN-2 had been flight tested aboard a C-97 aircraft between April 1952 and May 1953. This is in turn was replaced by the XN-6. The XN-6 introduced paired counterrotating gyroscopes to compensate for the precession errors resulting from the single-gyro-per-axis XN-2 design; and introduced hydrodynamic bearing gyros in place of the XN-2's air bearings. N-6 flight testing began aboard a T-29 in May 1954.

Due to the continuing need for the best available scientific advice for the reorientation and acceleration of the Atlas program, Headquarters USAF established the Atlas Scientific Advisory Committee. Subsequently redesignated the ICBM Scientific Advisory Committee, this Committee was essentially a reconstitution of the former von Neumann Committee (Strategic Missiles Evaluation Committee) which had disbanded following the submission of its report on 10 February. The new Committee was also chaired by John von Neumann, but its membership was expanded and slightly different from the old "Teapot" Committee.

In a memorandum to Secretary of the Air Force Harold E. Talbott, Deputy Secretary of Defense Roger M. Keyes stressed that the plans for the ballistic missile program "be formulated with a thoroughly realistic appraisal of the capabilities of our contractors to meet their commitments." He then emphasized that the program was to move forward "with all practicable speed."

Council of Soviet Ministers (SM) Decree 'On approval of work on the R-5M missile and on establishment of OKB-586 at Dnepropetrovsk Plant No. 586' was issued. Sadoviy and Kozlov were named to lead the project. Based substantially on the R-5, it used the 8U25 launch portable launch stand.

Trevor Gardner informed General Twining, Air Force Chief of Staff, that the 19 March memorandum from Secretary of the Air Force Harold E. Talbott and the Air Force Council's actions of 16 March were substantially in agreement on the proposed plan to accelerate Atlas. The program was to be reoriented, and its acceleration was to proceed at maximum possible effort with no limitation on funding. The accomplishment of the new program was to be the direct responsibility of a field office under a general officer who would have authority and control over all aspects of the program.

First launching of a three-stage rocket vehicle consisting of two Nike boosters in tandem and a Deacon rocket as a third stage, and also a first launching of a rocket booster system consisting of three "peelaway" Deacons as the first stage wrapped around a fourth Deacon as a second stage, and a HPAG rocket as a third stage, by NACA Langley's PARD at Wallops Island.

Development Command gave the Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation a new contract to continue research and experimental investigations that had been begun in support of the original von Neumann Committee. Part of Ramo-Wooldridge's work involved technical evaluations and systems analyses of Project Atlas to be performed over a 12-month period and to be used for the redefinition of the program prior to its acceleration. In addition, conclusions and recommendations resulting from research completed under previous contracts were to be analyzed for possible future applications.

General Thomas D. White, Air Force Vice Chief of Staff, informed Headquarters USAF offices and personnel that the Atlas program would be accelerated to the maximum extent that technology would permit. To insure the necessary support, the program was given the highest research and development priority in the Air Force (1-A), while it received a 1-2 category and precedence rating and a S-l supply priority. Field responsibility for the Atlas program during development and test would be assigned to Air Research and Development Command which would establish a field office on the west coast commanded by a general officer.

Council of Soviet Ministers (SM) Decree 957-409 'On transfer of intercontinental cruise missile work to the Ministry of Aviation Industry' was issued. Korolev had to place the highest priority on development of the R-7 ICBM. Therefore the final government decree authorised the Lavochkin and Myasishchev aircraft design bureaux to proceed in parallel with full-scale development of trisonic intercontinental cruise missiles. Both missiles would use ramjet engines by Bondaryuk, astronavigation systems by R Chachikyan, inertial navigation systems by G Tolstoysov, and aerodynamics developed by TsAGI (Central Hydrodynamics Institute). Lavochkin's Burya would use rocket booster engines built by Glushko, while Myasishchev's Buran would use Isayev engines. Both missiles were to deliver a nuclear warhead over an 8,500 km range. But the warhead design specified for the Lavochkin missile had a total mass of 2,100 kg, while that for the Myasishchev missile weighed 3,500 kg.

The Generator-S radiological warhead for the R-5 was developed in the early 1950's. In order to handle the warhead OKBT Kirov Factory built the shielded manipulator vehicle Objekt 805, which had a total mass of 72 tonnes. Following the demonstration the system was accepted by the military in 1955.

The technological basis was the N-3 project, which covered various engine and propulsion approaches. In 1955 a unit was formed within Tikhonravov's section of OKB-1 to develop the first satellite; this included Feoktistov, Bazhinov, Maksimov, and Soldatora.

Lt General Donald L. Putt officially assigned the responsibility for reorienting and accelerating the Atlas program to Headquarters, Air Research and Development Command. The general officer appointed to command the office was to be given authority and control over the entire Atlas program which already had been granted the highest priority in the Air Force on 14 May.

In a meeting, Dr. Wernher von Braun, Frederick C. Durant III, Alexander Satin, David Young, Dr. Fred L. Whipple, Dr. S. Fred Singer, and Commander George W. Hoover agreed that a Redstone rocket with a Loki cluster as the second stage could launch a satellite into a 200-mile orbit without major new developments. This became a joint Army-Navy study project after meeting at Redstone Arsenal on August 3. Project Orbiter was a later outgrowth of this proposal and resulted in the launching of Explorer I on January 31, 1958.

By verbal orders of LtGeneral Thomas S. Power, Commander, ARDC, the Western Development Division (WDD), Headquarters ARDC, was established at 409 East Manchester Boulevard, Inglewood, California, under the command of Brigadier General Bernard A. Schriever. Headquarters ARDC General Order Number 42 confirmed LtGeneral Power's verbal orders of 1 July establishing the Western Development Division of Headquarters ARDC. Rocketdyne put on contract for Atlas engines.

After 2 years' study of problems that might be encountered in manned space flight, a joint group - NACA, Air Force, and Navy - met in Washington to discuss the need for a hypersonic research vehicle and to decide on the type of aircraft that could attain these objectives. The NACA proposal was accepted in December 1954, and a formal memorandum of understanding was signed to initiate the X-15 project. Technical direction of the project was assigned to the NACA. On November 9, 1961, the X-15 reached its design speed of over 4,000 miles per hour and achieved partial space conditions on July 17, 1962, when it reached an altitude of 314,750 feet. By the latter date, the Mercury spacecraft had made two manned orbital flights.

NACA met with USAF and Navy BuAer representatives to propose the X-15 as an extension of the cooperative rocket research aircraft program. The NACA proposal was accepted as a joint effort and a memorandum of understanding was signed on December 23 naming NACA as technical director of the project, with advice from a joint Research Airplane Committee.

The Air Force Atlas Scientific Advisory Committee (the former von Neumann Committee as reconstituted in April) met at the Western Development Division to discuss the reorientation of the Atlas program. The Committee expressed its dissatisfaction with Convair's lack of progress and noted some serious flaws in the company's technical and managerial approaches. After examining the project management structure proposed by WDD, the Committee unanimously concluded that it was weak and confused and that Convair was not strong enough to be given systems responsibility over the Atlas project. It was recommended that the project management structure, and especially Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation's role therein, be reevaluated and that a new, stronger approach be worked out. In addition, the Committee recommended that a second propulsion system contractor be introduced into the program as a back-up for North American.

Through February 1955 the state acceptance trials for the production missile were conducted. 19 launches were made, 10 of which passed the acceptance criteria, 5 did not, and 4 were used for test of the new radio-correction guidance system. This used the R-5R variant of the missile; one of those four tests was unsuccessful.

Headquarters Air Materiel Command (AMC) announced the establishment of the Special Aircraft Project Office (SAPO) under the command of Colonel Harold T. Morris. SAPO was to begin operations in Inglewood, California, on 15 August, and would perform all procurement and contracting functions for the Western Development Division.

Headquarters USAF issued a "skeleton" general operational requirements, GOR Number 21 (SA-IC), for an intercontinental bombardment weapon system ballistic missile replacing the previous GOR Number 1. The weapon system to satisfy this GOR was expected to emerge from the redefinition and acceleration of the Atlas program.

After completing an evaluation of possible management approaches, a special WDD study group recommended to General Schriever that the Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation manage the Atlas program. In this position, the Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation would provide and be responsible for systems engineering and technical direction (SE/TD) for the entire Atlas project and for monitoring hardware development accomplished under Air Force contracts with industry.

General Schriever forwarded two important recommendations to Headquarters ARDC. First, he recommended that an alternate propulsion system contractor be introduced into the Atlas program as a back-up. Second, he presented the results of the Atlas management study of 18 August and recommended Ramo-Wooldridge for the SE/TD role in the project.

Structural test flight. Successfully made extreme maneuvers at Mach 1.84. However automated landing system attempted to make landing flare 6 m below the runway level. Vehicle impacted at high speed and was destroyed. However the flight set a speed record for a turbojet-powered aircraft.

At the suggestion of Theodore von Kármán and following a request of Gen. H. B. Thatcher, an Ad Hoc Committee of the Scientific Advisory Board met in the Pentagon to consider the application of nuclear energy to missile propulsion. In its report, the Committee "noted that there was an almost complete hiatus in the study of the nuclear rocket from 1947 following a report by North American Aviation, until a 1953 report by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Because the technical problems appear so severe, and because another 6 years of no progress in this area would seem to be unfortunate," the Committee felt that a continuing study both analytical and experimental, at a modest level of effort, should be carried on.

The early results of missile configuration studies conducted by Lockheed, the Glenn L. Martin Company, and the newly formed Guided Missile Research Division (GMRD) of Ramo-Wooldridge, supported by other Air Force studies, indicated the numerous advantages of a two-stage missile. Therefore, General Schriever recommended to LtGeneral Thomas S. Power, Commander, ARDC, that a second, or alternate, configuration and staging approach be introduced into the program to take full advantage of more advanced concepts and to stimulate competition.

After further study, General Schriever recommended that the Convair program be continued because the company had the experience and could become the nucleus for the Atlas development team. Convair would handle airframe structural and aerodynamic aspects of the program along with the assembly of the vehicle and its components. The Western Development Division and the Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation would provide SE/TD for the Atlas contractor.

Canadian physicist mission specialist astronaut 1983-2008. Selected Aug 1996; he had been Payload Specialist on STS-52 Mission LAGEOS-2 (responsible for the Space Visions System). 2 spaceflights, 21.7 days in space. Flew to orbit on STS-52 (1992), STS-115.