Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Difference between revisions

JPL traces its beginnings to 1936 in the [[Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory]] at the California Institute of Technology (GALCIT) when the first set of [[United States]] rocket experiments were carried out in the [[Arroyo Seco (Los Angeles County)|Arroyo Seco]].<ref>{{Cite thesis |title=The Guggenheim Aeronautics Laboratory at Caltech and the creation of the modern rocket motor (1936–1946): How the dynamics of rocket theory became reality |url=http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1999PhDT........48Z |date=1999 |first=Benjamin Seth |last=Zibit |bibcode=1999PhDT........48Z |access-date=2021-02-19 |archive-date=2017-07-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170710182842/http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1999PhDT........48Z |url-status=live }}</ref> This initial venture involved Caltech graduate students [[Frank Malina]], [[Qian Xuesen]],<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-me-qian-xuesen1-2009nov01-story.html | title=Qian Xuesen dies at 98; rocket scientist helped establish Jet Propulsion Laboratory | website=Los Angeles Times | date=September 17, 2014 | access-date=March 12, 2024 | archive-date=January 15, 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200115040111/https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-me-qian-xuesen1-2009nov01-story.html | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/profile/qian-xuesen/ | title=Qian Xuesen - Nuclear Museum | access-date=March 12, 2024 | archive-date=January 28, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230128025801/https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/profile/qian-xuesen/ | url-status=live }}</ref> Weld Arnold<ref>{{cite web |title=Science: Quiet Space Lab |date=October 5, 1959 |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,894281-1,00.html |publisher=Time Magazine |access-date=April 28, 2023 |archive-date=April 29, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230429022034/https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,894281-1,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and [[Apollo M. O. Smith]], along with [[Jack Parsons (rocket engineer)|Jack Parsons]] and [[Edward S. Forman]], often referred to as the "Suicide Squad" due to the dangerous nature of their experiments.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Landis |first=Geoffrey A. |date=2005 |editor-last=Pendle |editor-first=Geirge |editor2-last=Lord |editor2-first=M. G. |title=The Three Rocketeers |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27858614 |journal=American Scientist |volume=93 |issue=4 |pages=361–363 |jstor=27858614 |issn=0003-0996 |access-date=August 5, 2023 |archive-date=August 5, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230805082735/https://www.jstor.org/stable/27858614 |url-status=live }}</ref> Together, they tested a small, alcohol-fueled motor to gather data for Malina's graduate thesis.<ref>{{Cite thesis |title=Characteristics of the rocket motor and flight analyses of the sounding rocket |url=https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechTHESIS:08202010-143142441 |publisher=California Institute of Technology |date=1940 |degree=phd |language=en |first=Frank Joseph |last=Malina |access-date=August 5, 2023 |archive-date=May 23, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240523064729/https://thesis.library.caltech.edu/6003/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Malina's thesis advisor was engineer/aerodynamicist [[Theodore von Kármán]], who eventually secured U.S. Army financial support for this "GALCIT Rocket Project" in 1939.