1952 in spaceflight

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 White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The new Viking design was nearly half-again as wide as its precursor, affording the highest fuel-to-weight ratio of any rocket yet developed. The tail fins no longer supported the weight of the rocket, has had previously been the case. Now, the Viking rocket rested on the base of its fuselage. This allowed the tail fins to be made much lighter, one of many ways the Viking was redesigned 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 miles (6.4 km) or 5 miles (8.0 km) downrange to the southeast.[2]^:172–181

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 (217 km), roughly the same as that of the first-generation Viking 7, launched 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.[2]^:185–203

1952 saw the first rockoon flights. These balloon-mounted rockets were significantly cheaper than sounding rocket flights: $1800 (equivalent to $14182) per launch versus $25,000 ($196967) for each Aerobee launch and $450,000 ($3545407) 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, one flight grazing the edge of space with an apogee of 55 miles (89 km).[3]^:10–18

Progress remained slow on the Atlas, the nation's first ICBM, the contract for which had been awarded to Consolidated Vultee in January 1951 by the U.S. Air Force's Air Research and Development Command. Conservative development policies and daunting technical problems were the official causes, but the Air Forces's apparent lack of enthusiasm for project, along with the constraint of limited budget and resources, were factors as well. It was not until the first successful H-bomb test at Elugelab in November 1952 that the Atlas, potentially capable of delivering such a weapon, garnered more support.[4]^:59–71

The Redstone, a surface-to-surface missile capable of delivering nuclear or conventional warheads to a range of 200 miles (320 km), officially received the name "Redstone" on 8 April 1952. Authority for development of the missile had been assigned to Redstone Arsenal in Alabama on 10 July 1951, Chrysler Corporation was tasked 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).[5]

In part inspired by lectures he gave to the British Interplanetary Society in London the previous year, in 1952, Fred Singer began espousing in both print and public presentations the use of small artificial satellites to conduct scientific observations. This concept was dubbed "MOUSE" (Minimum Orbiting Unmanned Satellite of the Earth) and was dismissed by many as too radical and/or in conflict with human exploration of space.[3]^:73

In the Soviet Union, rocket development was focused on the R-5 missile, able to carry the same 1,000 kilograms (2,200 lb) payload as the R-1 and R-2 but over a distance of 1,200 kilometres (750 mi).[6]^:242 The R-5, the conceptual design of which was completed by 30 October 1951,[7]^:97 superseded the ambitious 3,000 kilometres (1,900 mi) range R-3, which was canceled on 20 October 1951[6]^:275–6

The USSR's "first Soviet strategic rocket," as the R-5 was thenceforth known, was an incremental improvement on the R-1 and R-2 rockets with not only increased range but improved accuracy. Its propellant tanks were integral to the rocket, itself, reducing structural weight and allowing for more fuel.[7]^:99–100 Two of the first ten R-5s produced underwent stand tests through February 1952,[8] and the sleek, cylindrical R-5 would be ready for its first launch March 1953.[7]^:99–100

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 (121,260 lb_f) RD-105 would power the R-6's four strap-on engines while a 519.75 kN (116,840 lb_f) RD-106 would power the central booster.[7]^:108–109

That same year, there was also a series of fourteen test launches of the mass-produced version of R-2 missile (range of 600 kilometres (370 mi)[6]^:48–9). Twelve of the missiles reached their targets.[6]^:266 The R-1 also was test-launched seven times.[9]