Army Ballistic Missile Agency

History

The Army Ballistic Missile Agency’s first major undertaking was the Redstone missile, which traced its lineage directly back to the V-2 rocket developed by Wernher von Braun’s team in Germany during World War II. When the Department of Defense’s Committee on Special Capabilities chose the Naval Research Laboratory’s Project Vanguard over ABMA’s plan to launch a satellite using a modified Redstone, the agency was told to halt satellite launcher work and concentrate on military missiles. Von Braun kept developing what became the Jupiter-C, a three-stage rocket built to test components for the Jupiter missile. By adding a fourth stage, it could also serve as a satellite launcher in a configuration called Juno I. In September 1956, a Jupiter-C flew a suborbital test carrying a 14-kilogram dummy satellite; many believed ABMA could have put a real satellite into orbit at that time if the U.S. government had permitted it. A year later, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1. After the Vanguard rocket failed, a Redstone-based Jupiter-C with an added fourth stage—now designated Juno I—lifted America’s first satellite, Explorer 1, into orbit on 1 February 1958. The Redstone later served as a launch vehicle for Project Mercury and was fielded by the U.S. Army as the PGM-11, the first missile to carry a nuclear warhead.

In 1956, work began on a Redstone replacement. Initially called Redstone-S (for solid fuel), it was renamed the MGM-31 Pershing, and a contract went to the Martin Company, starting a program that lasted 34 years. Early in 1958, NACA’s Stever Committee consulted ABMA’s large booster program, led by von Braun, whose group was known as the Working Group on Vehicular Program. In March 1958, ABMA was placed under the newly formed U.S. Army Ordnance Missile Command (AOMC), alongside Redstone Arsenal, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, White Sands Proving Ground, and the Army Rocket and Guided Missile Agency. General Medaris took command of AOMC, and Brigadier General John A. Barclay became ABMA’s commander. On 1 July 1960, AOMC’s space-related missions, along with most of its personnel, facilities, and equipment, were transferred to NASA, creating the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center. Wernher von Braun was appointed its director.