FIRST STEPS TOWARD SPACE - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

140 SMITHSONIAN ANNALS OF FLIGHT
cal-technical question that had troubled me secretly.
Fourteen days later I had my slit injector and
nozzle. Another seven days later my cone combustion
chamber was ready to fire. With that the door
to space travel was pushed open. However, as a
consequence of my tension and taut nerves I had
committed several grave blunders, especially in
treating people.
But as I said, the combustion chamber for liquid
propellants was invented, and it has been hailed as
a major contribution to astronautics. I was helped
with my experiments by students of the Technical
University of Berlin. Among them was Wernher
von Braun, who has since made space travel a
reality.
NOTES
Under the title Mop raboty po astronavtike, this paper
appeared on pages 85-96 of Iz istorii astronavtiki i raketnoi
tekhniki: Materialy XVIII mezhdunarodnogo astronavticheskogo
kongressa, Belgrad, 25-29 Sentyavrya 1967 [From the
History of Rockets and Astronautics: Materials of the 18th
International Astronautical Congress, Belgrade, 25-29 September
1967], Moscow: Nauka, 1970.
1. Robert H. Goddard, "A Method of Reaching Extreme
Altitudes," Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, vol. 71, no.
2, December 1919, p. 1:
The problem was to determine the minimum initial mass
of an ideal rocket necessary, in order that on a continuous
loss of mass, a final mass of one pound would remain, at any
desired altitude.
An approximate method was found necessary, in solving
this problem .... in order to avoid an unsolved problem
in the Calculus of Variations. The solution that was obtained
revealed the fact that surprising small initial masses would
be necessary . . . .—Ed.
2. Dallwitz-Wegner, "Ober Raketenpropeller und die
Unmoglichkeit der Weltraumschiffahrt mittels Raketenschiffen"
[The Rocket Propeller and the Impossibility of Space
Travel by Means of Rocket Ships], Autotechnik, 1929; K.
Holzhausen, "Schuss und Rakete in den Weltenraum" [Projectiles
and Rockets in Interstellar Space], Maschinen-
Konstrukteur, vol. 61, no. 18 (15 September 1928), pp. 436-
437, and, same issue, H. Oberth, "Das Wesen der Rakete"
[Principle of the Rocket], pp. 438-441.—Ed.
3. H. Lorenz, "Die Moglichkeit der Weltraumfahrt" [The
Possibility of Space Travel], Zeitschrift des Vereins Deutscher
Ingenieure, vol. 71, no. 19, 7 May 1927, pp. 651-657, and
Supplements 1 (vol. 71, no. 32, 6 August 1927, p. 1128) and 2
(vol. 71, no. 35, 27 August 1927, p. 1236); and "Der Rakentenflug
in der Stratosphare" [Rocket Flight in the Stratosphere]
and "Die Ausfuhrbarkeit der Weltraumfahrt" [The Feasibility
of Space Travel], Jahrbuch der Wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft
fur Luftfahrt, 1928. Hermann Oberth, "1st die Weltraumfahrt
Mciglich? [Is Space Travel Possible], Die Rakete,
no. 11 (15 November 1927), pp. 144-52, and no. 12 (15 Decem­
ber 1927), pp. 163-66. Accounts of the Lorenz-Oberth debate
at the WGL meeting appear in Willy Ley, Rockets, Missiles,
and Men in Space (New York: The Viking Press, 1968), pp.
109-110; and Theodore von Karman, with Lee Edson, The
Wind and Beyond (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1967), pp.
236-37.—Ed.
4. Ley, op. cit. (note 3), pp. 85-93.
5. Konstantin E. Tsiolkovskiy, "Issledovaniye mirovykh
prostranstv reaktivnymi priborami [Investigation of Outer
Space by Means of Reactive Devices], Nauchnoye Obozreniye
[Science Review], no. 5 (May 1903), pp. 44-75, and Rakyeta
v kosmeetcheskoye prostranstv [The Rocket into Cosmic
Space] (Kaluga, 1924), 32 pp.—Ed.
6. Tsiolkovskiy, Rakyeta v kosmeetcheskoye prostranstv, p.
iii; and W. Ley, op. cit. (note 3), p. 96.—Ed.
7. I was exposed to medical information early in life because
my father was a physician and a good friend of the
town's physician, Dr. Fritz Kraus. We visited him very often.
He was a man with an incredible amount of knowledge; and
the conversations between my father and him were always
highly interesting and instructive. It was stated incorrectly,
therefore, in 1958 that I had acquired only a little general
education at the age of 30. I was also a very eager reader of
the Monthly Popular Science Journal Kosmos.
8. Oberth, Die Rakete zu den Planetenrdumen [The Rocket
into Interplanetary Space] (Munich-Berlin: R. Oldenbourg,
1923), 92 pp.; and Wege zur Raumschiffahrt [Means for Space
Travel] (Munich-Berlin: R. Oldenbourg, 1929), 431 pp.
9. Oberth, The Moon Car, translated by Willy Ley (New
York: Harper & Brothers, 1959), 98 pp.
10. John L. Chapman, Atlas: The Story of a Missile (New
York: Harper & Brothers, 1960), pp. 86-92.—Ed.
11. See note 8.
12. Valier, Der Vorstoss in den Weltenraum [The Advance
into Space] (Munich-Berlin: R. Oldenbourg, 1924), 134 pp.;
Gail, Mit Raketenkraft ins Weltenall: Vom Feuerwagen zum
Raumschiff, [With Rocket Propulsion into Space: From
Rocket Cars to Space Ship] (Stuttgart: K. Thienemann, 1928),
106 pp.; Ley, Die Fahrt ins Weltall [The Journey into Space]
(Leipzig: Hachmeister & Thai, 1926); and Linke, Das
Raketen-Weltraumschiff [The Rocket Spaceship] (Hamburg,
1928), 100 pp.
13. See note 1 and Esther C. Goddard and G. Edward
Pendray, Editors, The Papers of Robert H. Goddard (New
York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1970), vol. 1, pp. 485-86
and 545.—Ed.
14. See note 5.
15. Hohmann, Die Erreichbarkeit der Himmelskorper [The
Attainability of Celestial Bodies] (Munich-Berlin: R. Oldenbourg,
1925), 88 pp.
16. See note 4.
17. See note 8.
18. See note 3.
19. See note 2.
20. 5 June 1927, see Heinz Gartman, The Men behind the
Space Rockets (New York: David McKay, 1956), pp. 48-73.
21. Ley, Rockets, Missiles, and Men in Space (see note 3),
pp. 114-24.
22. Ibid., pp. 121-24.
23. Ibid., p. 118.