1952 in spaceflight

In 1952, several branches of the United States' military, often in partnership with civilian organizations, continued their programs of sounding rocket research beyond the 100 km boundary of space (as defined by the World Air Sports Federation) using the Aerobee rocket. The University of Iowa launched its first series of rockoon flights, demonstrating the validity of the balloon-launched rocket, a comparatively inexpensive way to explore the upper atmosphere. The launch of Viking 9 at the end of the year to an altitude of 135 mi, by the Naval Research Laboratory team under the management of Milton Rosen, represented the pinnacle of contemporary operational rocket design.

The same year, groundwork was laid for the launch of the first artificial satellite when, in October, the General Assembly of the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) scheduled the International Geophysical Year for 1957–58. This scientific endeavor would involve 67 nations in a global investigation of physical phenomena, on the ground and in space.

No new models of ballistic missile were added to the arsenals of either the United States or the Soviet Union in 1952. However, work continued on large rocket development, particularly the US Army's Redstone and the Soviet R-5 missile. Both the R-1 and R-2 missiles had operational test runs during the year.

US Navy
In the late spring of 1952, the Naval Research Laboratory team, under the management of Milton Rosen, prepared to launch the first second-generation Viking rocket, Viking 8, from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The new Viking design was nearly one-and-a-half times as wide as its precursor, with the highest fuel-to-weight ratio of any rocket yet developed. The tail fins no longer supported the weight of the rocket, which had been the case with the first-generation design. Now, the Viking rocket rested on the base of its fuselage. This allowed the tail fins to be made much lighter, allowing the rocket to carry a heavier tank without weighing more than the first Viking design.

On 6 June 1952, Viking 8 broke loose of its moorings during a static firing test. After it was allowed to fly for 55 seconds in the hope that it would clear the immediate area and thus pose no danger to ground crew, Nat Wagner, head of the "Cutoff group", delivered a command to the rocket to cease its thrust. 65 seconds later, the rocket crashed 4 to 5 mi downrange to the southeast.

With lessons learned from the Viking 8 failure, the successful 9 December static firing of Viking 9 was followed on 15 December by a successful launch from White Sands. The rocket reached an altitude of 135 miles, roughly the same as that of the first-generation Viking 7 in 1950. In addition to cameras that photographed the Earth during flight, Viking 9 carried a full suite of cosmic ray, ultraviolet, and X-ray detectors, including sixteen plates of emulsion gel for tracking the path of individual high energy particles. The experiment package was recovered intact after it had secured measurements high above the Earth's atmosphere.

US Army
The final flight of the V-2 rocket occurred on 19 September 1952 with an unsuccessful aeronomy mission conducted jointly by the Signal Corps Engineering Laboratories and University of Michigan from White Sands Launch Complex 33. The rocket reached an apogee of 7.1 km before its tail exploded 27 seconds into the flight.

American civilian efforts
1952 saw the first rockoon flights. These balloon-mounted rockets were significantly cheaper than sounding rocket flights: $1800 per launch versus $25,000 for each Aerobee launch and $450,000 for each Viking launch. A series of seven ship-launched tests conducted by a University of Iowa team under James Van Allen achieved considerable success, with one flight grazing the edge of space with an apogee of 55 miles.

US Air Force
Progress remained slow throughout 1952 on the Atlas, the nation's first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the contract for which had been awarded to Consolidated Vultee in January 1951 by the US Air Force's Air Research and Development Command. Conservative development policies and daunting technical problems were the official causes, but the Air Force's apparent lack of enthusiasm for the project, along with a limited budget and resources, were factors as well. It was not until the first successful H-bomb test at Elugelab in November 1952 that development of the Atlas, potentially capable of delivering such a weapon, garnered more support.

US Army
On 8 April 1952, Redstone Arsenal in Alabama officially gave the name of "Redstone" to the surface-to-surface missile, capable of delivering nuclear or conventional warheads to a range of 200 miles, which they had started developing on 10 July 1951. The office of the Chief of Ordnance of the Army (OCO) tasked Chrysler Corporation to proceed with active work as the prime contractor on the missile by a letter order contract in October 1952; this contract definitized on 19 June 1953.

Soviet military
In 1952, the Soviet Union focused its strategic rocket development on the R-5 missile, which superseded the overambitious 3000 km range R-3, previously canceled on 20 October 1951. OKB-1 under Sergei Korolev completed the conceptual design for the R-5, able to carry the same 1000 kg payload as the R-1 and R-2 but over a distance of 1200 km, by 30 October 1951.

This dramatic increase in performance of the R-5 over its predecessors was made possible through development of the RD-103 engine, an evolution of the RD-101 used in the R-2 missile, and by reducing the weight of the rocket through use of integrated tankage (while at the same time increasing propellant load by 60% over the R-2). The military had much more confidence in this incremental design than the radical leap forward that was the R-3, and work proceeded apace. Other innovations over the R-1 and R-2 included small aerodynamic rudders run by servomotors to replace the big fins of the R-1/R-2, and longitudinal acceleration integrators to improve the precision of engine cutoff and thus accuracy. Two of the first ten R-5s produced underwent stand tests through February 1952, and the sleek, cylindrical R-5, "the first Soviet strategic rocket", would be ready for its first launch March 1953.

Also in 1952, the design bureau OKB-486, under Valentin Glushko, began developing the RD-105 and RD-106 engines for an even more powerful rocket: the five engine R-6 ICBM. Using an integrated solder-welded configuration, developed by engineer Aleksei Isaev, these LOX/kerosene engines would be more powerful single chamber engines than those used in earlier rockets. Four 539.37 kN RD-105 would power the R-6's four strap-on engines while a 519.75 kN RD-106 would power the central booster.

That same year, there was also a series of fourteen test launches of the mass-produced version of R-2 missile, with a range of 600 km. Twelve of the missiles reached their targets. The R-1 also was test-launched seven times.

Civilian efforts
In October 1952, the General Assembly of the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) adopted a proposal to undertake a third International Polar Year. This endeavor would involve both a wider scope, encompassing simultaneous observations of geophysical phenomena over the entire surface of the Earth including the Arctic and Antarctica, as well as a longer period, lasting 18 months. The International Geophysical Year (IGY), set for 1957–58, ultimately would involve the participation of 67 countries. To coordinate this massive effort, the ICSU formed the Comité Speciale de l'Année Géophysique Internationale (CSAGI), which would hold four major meetings with representation from all participating countries over the next four years.

In 1951, the University of Maryland's Fred Singer gave a series of lectures to the British Interplanetary Society in London espousing the use of small artificial satellites to conduct scientific observations. In 1952 Singer expanded his audience through publications and public presentations on his proposals for "MOUSE" (Minimum Orbiting Unmanned Satellite of the Earth). Though dismissed by many as too radical and/or in conflict with human exploration of space, the proposal catalyzed serious discussion of the use of satellites for scientific research.

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