billion people travelled on commercial airline planes.
2
Planes have made flying an
ordinary experience for most of us, but they only populate the lowest part of
Earth’s atmosphere.
In the last 60 years only about 600 people have been able to fly higher than that.
This was made possible by special flying vehicles: the rockets, or space
launchers.
The golden age of launchers occurred during the Space Race, with colossal
projects such as the huge US Saturn V rocket. As we saw in the previous chapter, the very first rockets were designed and built in Germany in the middle of
WWII by Werner von Braun for the Nazi regime. Von Braun launched hundreds of missiles, named V2 (Vergeltungswaffe 2) over England from a launch
base on the Northern Sea. Hitler hoped to use this revolutionary weapon all
over the world, thereby turning the war in favour of the Third Reich. Luckily,
this did not happen. Before the end of the war, Von Braun took refuge in the
US, where he brought his team and rockets. There, he continued his job,
designing and building weapon missiles but this time for the Pentagon, waiting for the right moment to use them to lift NASA’s spaceships into space, and
ultimately to the Moon.
Just after the WWII, space rocketry was the exclusive domain of the US and the
Soviet Union, but soon other countries started developing their own space launchers. In particular, all nations with nuclear capability started building rockets with
the dual goal of launching bombs as well as satellites into space. France and the
UK in Europe,
3
China, India and Japan in Asia, all started their own space programs, developing an autonomous industrial base capable of manufacturing
engines, tanks, wirings, electronics and all the equipment necessary to design and
build a launch vehicle.
Each nation selected a suitable geographical site within its own territory for a
launch base. The full control of a skilled industry and launch site were – and still
are – prerequisites to developing a space program. Without these capabilities, any
country would be obliged to purchase missile technology or launch services from
another nation, losing strategic autonomy.
Nowadays, more than twenty nations worldwide have satellites in orbit around
the Earth, but only six of them – of which five are nuclear powers– own the missile
technology and have a launch base within their territory.
4
2
https://www.iata.org/pressroom/pr/Pages/2017-10-24-01.aspx.
3
Krige, J., A. Russo, and L. Sebesta. A History of the European Space Agency 1958–1987.
Volume I, ESA SP-1235.
4
Strom, Steven R. 2006. International Launch Site Guide, AIAA second edition.
24 Rocket Science: Globalization and Missiles
2
Planes have made flying an
ordinary experience for most of us, but they only populate the lowest part of
Earth’s atmosphere.
In the last 60 years only about 600 people have been able to fly higher than that.
This was made possible by special flying vehicles: the rockets, or space
launchers.
The golden age of launchers occurred during the Space Race, with colossal
projects such as the huge US Saturn V rocket. As we saw in the previous chapter, the very first rockets were designed and built in Germany in the middle of
WWII by Werner von Braun for the Nazi regime. Von Braun launched hundreds of missiles, named V2 (Vergeltungswaffe 2) over England from a launch
base on the Northern Sea. Hitler hoped to use this revolutionary weapon all
over the world, thereby turning the war in favour of the Third Reich. Luckily,
this did not happen. Before the end of the war, Von Braun took refuge in the
US, where he brought his team and rockets. There, he continued his job,
designing and building weapon missiles but this time for the Pentagon, waiting for the right moment to use them to lift NASA’s spaceships into space, and
ultimately to the Moon.
Just after the WWII, space rocketry was the exclusive domain of the US and the
Soviet Union, but soon other countries started developing their own space launchers. In particular, all nations with nuclear capability started building rockets with
the dual goal of launching bombs as well as satellites into space. France and the
UK in Europe,
3
China, India and Japan in Asia, all started their own space programs, developing an autonomous industrial base capable of manufacturing
engines, tanks, wirings, electronics and all the equipment necessary to design and
build a launch vehicle.
Each nation selected a suitable geographical site within its own territory for a
launch base. The full control of a skilled industry and launch site were – and still
are – prerequisites to developing a space program. Without these capabilities, any
country would be obliged to purchase missile technology or launch services from
another nation, losing strategic autonomy.
Nowadays, more than twenty nations worldwide have satellites in orbit around
the Earth, but only six of them – of which five are nuclear powers– own the missile
technology and have a launch base within their territory.
4
2
https://www.iata.org/pressroom/pr/Pages/2017-10-24-01.aspx.
3
Krige, J., A. Russo, and L. Sebesta. A History of the European Space Agency 1958–1987.
Volume I, ESA SP-1235.
4
Strom, Steven R. 2006. International Launch Site Guide, AIAA second edition.
24 Rocket Science: Globalization and Missiles