FIRST STEPS TOWARD SPACE - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

14
Early Rocket Developments of the American Rocket Society
The first issue of the Bulletin of the American
Interplanetary Society, better known later as the
American Rocket Society, 1 appeared in June 1930.
It consisted of four single-spaced mimeograph pages,
carrying news of the Society's founding on 4 April
of the same year; * a summary of a paper on "The
Historical Background of Interplanetary Travel"
by Fletcher Pratt, the writer and historian; an item
about the tragic death of the German rocket pioneer,
Max Valier, which had occurred in the previous
month; a prediction by Robert Esnault-Pelterie,
the French aircraft builder and inventor, "A trip to
the Moon may be possible within fifteen years"; and
an announcement that the Society was undertaking
"a survey of the entire field of information relating
to interplanetary travel."
This latter survey was the beginning of the Society's
program to promote the development of
rockets. As planned, it was to consist of a series of
studies by various members of the Society, summarizing
the literature then available on the physics,
chemistry, technology, and history of rockets, as well
as current thinking on what later came to be known
as astronautics. Several of these summary papers
were completed and presented at subsequent Society
meetings. Others were begun but later abandoned,
for it early became evident that a wide gap
existed between current ideas and technical literature
about rockets and the practical task of developing
them as potential vehicles for space exploration.
Dr. Robert H. Goddard, the American rocket and
space flight pioneer, was then at work on his highly
significant rocket development in Massachusetts,
and was soon to continue it on a greatly increased
scale in New Mexico, financed by a grant from
Daniel Guggenheim. Dr. Goddard had published
very little, his principal paper having been "A
G. EDWARD PENDRAY, United States
141
Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes," brought
out by the Smithsonian Institution in December
1919, dealing entirely with solid propellant rockets.
3 From time to time newspaper stories indicated
that he was making considerable progress, but members
of the Society could learn almost nothing about
the technical details of this work.
There had appeared in American newspapers and
popular magazines, however, numerous articles
about rocket experiments in other countries, especially
in Europe. These included the work of
Oberth, Heylandt, Valier, Esnault-Pelterie, the
Verein fiir Raumschiffahrt, and others.
At the time of the Society's founding I had been
elected vice-president, with the assignment of helping
to get a research program going. Early in 1931 it
became possible for Mrs. Pendray and me to go
abroad, and we planned our trip in such a way as to
enable us to see, we hoped, what some of the
European experimenters were doing. The Society
named us its official representatives, but in view of
the state of the treasury, we paid for the trip ourselves.
Mrs. Pendray was one of the twelve founders
of the Society, which number also included myself.
After some unsuccessful attempts to get in contact
with Darwin O. Lyon * in Italy and Robert
Esnault-Pelterie in France, both of whom were
away at the time of our arrival, our journey at
length brought us to Berlin, where we found Willy
Ley very much at home and eager to show us the
work of the Verein fiir Raumschiffahrt, which was
engaged in a modest experimental program at the
"Raketenflugplatz," its "rocket flying field" at
Reinickendorf on the outskirts of Berlin.
We had not previously met Ley, one of the
founders, and at that time secretary of the VfR, but
had corresponded with him. There was, however,