128
3 A Brief History of Space Flight
Hoefft, the Austrian rocket pioneer Guido von Pirquet and the Soviet astronautic
scientist Nikolai Alekseevich Rynin but also many young people such as the 17year-old Berlin Technical University student Wernher von Braun, who later became
a core leader in the development teams of the V-2 rocket in Germany and the Saturn5 huge-rocket in the United States. However, the establishment of the VfR had
not been supported and funded by the German government yet. Due to the lack of
research funding, it had to face survival and developmental problems. As a result,
the organizational structure and research work of the VfR were relatively loose, and
actually, only several core members had always studied liquid rockets.
In order to raise research funding, Valier persuaded a German automaker to
provide funding for rocket car development. Consequently, he had developed a series
of solid-fuel rocket vehicles with a speed of over 112 km/h and was highly praised
by manufacturers and major newspapers. However, some members from the VfR
criticized Valier: it has been proved that only liquid rockets are a unique feasible
vehicle to realize space flight; Valier should not spend time and energy in solidpropellant rocket research, which is also a kind of misguidance for the public. Later,
with the support of a manager of the German Industrial Gas Application Society,
Valier and his two assistants, Walter Riedel and Arthur Rudolph, started to develop
liquid rocket vehicles with liquid-oxygen and gasoline as propellants. In March 1930,
they developed a non-cooled liquid rocket engine with the thrust of 8 kgf, which was
not an ideal performance specification. To make the engine thrust reach 100 kgf, they
improved the designs of the nozzle, combustion chamber and propellant proportion
of the engine. On 17th May 1930, they conducted a series of tests for the improved
engine, using kerosene mixed with water in conduction with liquid oxygen; during
testing the combustion chamber pressurization, the engine exploded, and Valier was
broken through his pulmonary artery by a piece of shrapnel, resulting in blood loss
and death. At this time, he was just the age of 35. It was the first fatal accident in
aerospace technology experiments, which the Society deeply regretted. Since then,
the relevant experiments had been particularly cautious and the professional safety
assessment links were also added.
Two years after founding the VfR, Winkler resigned from the post of the VfR’s
president, and Oberth was elected as the second president. Later, Winkler conducted
liquid rocket researches on his own with funding from a number of small development
contracts. Winkler developed a “three legged” rocket HW-1, with a strange shape
and a stable tail-control device, which had three storage tanks with liquid oxygen
and methane propellants, 60-cm high and 5-kg weight. In February 1931, Winkler
conducted the first flight test of the HW-1 rocket at Dessau, Germany. Although its
flight altitude only reached 3 mdue to a malfunction, it was the first liquid-propellant
rocket flown in Europe. In March of the same year, the HW-1 rocket was conducted
the second flight test, which flew to an altitude of 500 mover Dessau. At that time,
the members of the VfR did not know the liquid rocket launch experiments made
as early as 1926 by Goddard in the United States while thought that it was the first
to set a world record for liquid rocket flight, which extremely excited them. Shortly
thereafter, Winkler started to develop the second large liquid rocket, HW-2, with
2-m high and two large propellant tanks loaded with liquid nitrogen and methane.
3 A Brief History of Space Flight
Hoefft, the Austrian rocket pioneer Guido von Pirquet and the Soviet astronautic
scientist Nikolai Alekseevich Rynin but also many young people such as the 17year-old Berlin Technical University student Wernher von Braun, who later became
a core leader in the development teams of the V-2 rocket in Germany and the Saturn5 huge-rocket in the United States. However, the establishment of the VfR had
not been supported and funded by the German government yet. Due to the lack of
research funding, it had to face survival and developmental problems. As a result,
the organizational structure and research work of the VfR were relatively loose, and
actually, only several core members had always studied liquid rockets.
In order to raise research funding, Valier persuaded a German automaker to
provide funding for rocket car development. Consequently, he had developed a series
of solid-fuel rocket vehicles with a speed of over 112 km/h and was highly praised
by manufacturers and major newspapers. However, some members from the VfR
criticized Valier: it has been proved that only liquid rockets are a unique feasible
vehicle to realize space flight; Valier should not spend time and energy in solidpropellant rocket research, which is also a kind of misguidance for the public. Later,
with the support of a manager of the German Industrial Gas Application Society,
Valier and his two assistants, Walter Riedel and Arthur Rudolph, started to develop
liquid rocket vehicles with liquid-oxygen and gasoline as propellants. In March 1930,
they developed a non-cooled liquid rocket engine with the thrust of 8 kgf, which was
not an ideal performance specification. To make the engine thrust reach 100 kgf, they
improved the designs of the nozzle, combustion chamber and propellant proportion
of the engine. On 17th May 1930, they conducted a series of tests for the improved
engine, using kerosene mixed with water in conduction with liquid oxygen; during
testing the combustion chamber pressurization, the engine exploded, and Valier was
broken through his pulmonary artery by a piece of shrapnel, resulting in blood loss
and death. At this time, he was just the age of 35. It was the first fatal accident in
aerospace technology experiments, which the Society deeply regretted. Since then,
the relevant experiments had been particularly cautious and the professional safety
assessment links were also added.
Two years after founding the VfR, Winkler resigned from the post of the VfR’s
president, and Oberth was elected as the second president. Later, Winkler conducted
liquid rocket researches on his own with funding from a number of small development
contracts. Winkler developed a “three legged” rocket HW-1, with a strange shape
and a stable tail-control device, which had three storage tanks with liquid oxygen
and methane propellants, 60-cm high and 5-kg weight. In February 1931, Winkler
conducted the first flight test of the HW-1 rocket at Dessau, Germany. Although its
flight altitude only reached 3 mdue to a malfunction, it was the first liquid-propellant
rocket flown in Europe. In March of the same year, the HW-1 rocket was conducted
the second flight test, which flew to an altitude of 500 mover Dessau. At that time,
the members of the VfR did not know the liquid rocket launch experiments made
as early as 1926 by Goddard in the United States while thought that it was the first
to set a world record for liquid rocket flight, which extremely excited them. Shortly
thereafter, Winkler started to develop the second large liquid rocket, HW-2, with
2-m high and two large propellant tanks loaded with liquid nitrogen and methane.