This collection consists of four cubic feet of material documenting the aerospace career of Milton Rosen, especially his work on the Viking Rocket and Vanguard Projects. The collection includes the following types of material: a Viking scrapbook; publications written by Rosen, including articles, papers, journals, and books; Viking photographs; Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Viking reports; NRL reports on V-2 and development of remote control for the JB-2 Flying Bomb; Rosen's professional correspondence; Viking design summary; 1955 Vanguard proposal; and several 1961 papers on planning for the manned lunar landing.
Biographical / Historical:
Milton Rosen (b. 1915) was a key figure in the development of the Viking Rocket and Vanguard programs. Rosen earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania in 1937. He joined the staff of the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in 1940 and he worked on guidance systems for missiles during World War II. From 1947 until 1955, Rosen was in charge of Viking Rocket development, and he then became the technical director of Project Vanguard. Rosen joined NASA in 1958 as Director of Launch Vehicles and Propulsion in the Office of Manned Space Flight. In 1963, he became Senior Scientist in NASA's Office of the Deputy Associate Administrator for Defense Affairs and was later appointed Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Science (Engineering). Rosen retired from NASA in 1974 to become Executive Secretary of the National Academy of Science's Space Science Board. Rosen wrote numerous articles on rockets and space flight, and is the author of The Viking Rocket Story, published in 1954. He is a fellow and former director of the American Rocket Society.
Provenance:
Milton Rosen, Gift, 2005
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access.
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests
The collection is comprised primarily of photographs showing the manufacture and test launching of V-2 missiles, both in Germany and in the United States (White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico) during and after World War II. There are also images of the facilities at Peenemunde and American confiscation of the technology. American projects documented include: Aerobee rockets, Project Blossom, and Viking rockets. There are also photographs of various instruments and technical graphs and charts. The photographs are black and white, except for approximately 40 color images (prints and 35mm color slides). A number of 4 x 5 inch copy negatives, 8 x 10 inch negatives, one glass lantern slide, some recent correspondence and several newspaper/magazine clippings are also included in the collection. Some of the sources from which the photographs were obtained include: the Applied Physics Laboratory; William Baum; the Deutsches Museum; William Dow and Nelson Spencer of the University of Michigan; Charles Johnson, Frances Johnson, Ernst Krause, and Richard Tousey of the Naval Research Laboratory; U.S. Air Force Air Materiel Command; and the University of Colorado.
Biographical / Historical:
David H. DeVorkin (1944- ) is a curator in the National Air and Space Museum's Space History Department. This collection of photographs was compiled by DeVorkin while researching for his 1992 book, 'Science with a Vengeance', which documents early rocket technology from the 1940s onwards. This book traces the exploration of the upper atmosphere with ballistic missiles systems, particularly the V-2. The first part of the book deals with the military context of upper atmospheric research: the military interest in seeing that such work was being done, the formation of appropriate groups in military labs capable of doing the work, and the development of the technical and managerial infrastructure requred to get the work done. The later half of the book examines the specific problems each scientific group addressed, including the technical, professional and managerial obstacles they faced as they explored the use of rockets for studying the sun, cosmic rays, the upper atmosphere, and the ionosphere.
General:
NASMrev
Provenance:
David H. DeVorkin, transfer, 1994, 1994-0056, unknown
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests
