Returning from the Cape

I turned toward home. I was anxious to stop in Iowa City, where I looked forward to comparing notes with Van Allen, helping with the preparations for processing the flight data, and making further arrangements for the upcoming launch of the much more complex Deal II instrument. I also took that opportunity to check our home on Rochester Avenue and to look in on my parents and three sisters. My journal account of that visit reads:

Arrived in Iowa City Sunday afternoon 2:05. There [were] dad and a few reporters [to greet me at the airplane]. We went to the farm (viaNona’s & Ivan’s [my sister and brother-in-law’s] new farm) where I took a nap. After supper at the Ox Yoke [a restaurant in nearby Amana, Iowa], Van Allen, Ray, Casper [sic: Kasper], Cahill, and McDonald came to the farm where we discussed data, data reduction, etc.

… Monday morning [I] was on his radio program, then with reporters. Then to Iowa City & Physics Dept., Ray’s in evening. Next day was spent primarily taking care of per­sonal matters—check house, make arrangements to sublet it to Boleys [former neighbors at Finkbine Park], etc. Evening at Cahills for dinner, then Rays.18

CHAPTER 9 • THE BIRTH OF EXPLORER I

Van Allen had arrived back from Washington on Saturday evening, just ahead of me. Among the extensive coverage in the Sunday edition of the Cedar Rapids Gazette was the following article19:

VAN ALLEN, LUDWIG RETURN TO IOWA

The Iowa City Press Citizen carried an extended article20:

S. U.I. PHYSICISTS TELL OF TENSION,

JOY AS SATELLITE LAUNCHED

Even the Van Allen dog was included in the publicity. An article in the Cedar Rapids Gazette read:

No Space Trip For Van Allen’s Dog, Family Says

Dr. James Van Allen, leader in space physics, recently touched off a domestic tempest when he jokingly offered his dog for outer space.

“Our children have been threatening him ever since,” says his attractive wife Abigail. “It looks like Domino is safe.” Domino is the Van Allen’s 8-year-old Cocker.21

JPL director Pickering also returned home that Sunday. A newspaper reporter who interviewed him upon his arrival at the Los Angeles Airport wrote:

Pickering’s arrival was something in the nature of a conqueror’s triumphal return home, but he brushed aside plaudits to extend credit to fellow scientists working at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for their “team” contributions.

Two of these fellow workers reached Los Angeles from Cape Canaveral, Florida,

10 minutes after Dr. Pickering’s arrival and joined him on the airport ramp for a group inter­view. They were Dr. Al Hibbs, 34-year-old chief of research analysis at the Caltech lab, and Dr. H. J. Stewart, 36, chief of the center’s liquid propulsion systems division. Also at the airport as head of a welcoming delegation was I. E. Newlan, supervisor of technical reports at the Pasadena school.22

Newspaper articles were rife with reports of new space projects planned, hoped for, and dreamed of. Typical of the more interesting statements was Pickering’s prediction that man-carrying Earth satellites might be launched into outer space within five years and that landings on the Moon and Mars were “possible” within the foreseeable future.

Even before Van Allen arrived home on Saturday evening, his wife, Abigail, had received a telegram from the White House in Washington:

The President and Mrs. Eisenhower hope you can come to dinner at the White House on Tuesday, February 4th, at 8 o’clock. White tie. Please wire reply.23

That started a scramble in the Van Allen household. Abby’s first reaction was, “What will I wear?” She did not have anything appropriate for a formal state dinner. Friends, relatives, and neighbors all rushed to offer their best gowns and accessories,

OPENING SPACE RESEARCH

and she was able to assemble an appropriate outfit. The Van Allen couple left Iowa City on Monday afternoon for the grand event.

The local papers carried extensive coverage of the state dinner and of the Van Allens’ excitement in participating in such a magnificent event.24

On Wednesday, we learned of the failure of the second Vanguard satellite launch attempt. The rocket had lifted off at 2:33 AM EST that morning. About 60 seconds after liftoff, at about 20,000 feet height, it tilted due to a problem in the guidance and control system, cracked in two, and was additionally destroyed by the range safety officer.

It was indeed painful to hear of the continuing terribly bad luck of the Vanguard program. I thought of Marty Votaw and Roger Easton, who had been so helpful to me a few days earlier, and of the anguish they and their colleagues must have felt as their program suffered another major setback.

My postlaunch stop in Iowa was short. The first Explorer I tapes were expected to arrive from the ground receiving stations within the next few days. By Wednesday morning, I had ensured that the data-processing equipment was in order, and Ernie Ray was poised to take charge of the data reduction activities. I stopped at the university’s television laboratory to tape an interview. At noon, Dad took me to his Lions Club meeting, and then to the Iowa City Airport to catch the United Airlines flight for California. At the steps of the ramp leading to the airplane’s door, I paused to talk to Van and Abbie, who were just then returning from the previous evening’s White House dinner. [3]

CHAPTER 9 • THE BIRTH OF EXPLORER I 261

and evening in trying to lip-sync film footage of me. He worked for a company hired by JPL to produce the film X Minus 80 Days, a documentary describing the Deal program. They had filmed a series of interviews with a number of us at JPL earlier. Synchronizing my voice and lip movement had proven unusually difficult because, apparently, I move my lips very little when I speak.

The JPL managers were eager to release the film during the great excitement immediately following the launch, so the film producers were rushing to complete their work. Just that evening, they had assembled the first full version, and they planned to take it to JPL the next morning for its first exposure there.

Being very proud of their work, the film editor was anxious to show it off. As soon as we completed our coffee, he took the four of us to his company’s nearby studio, where we felt like movie moguls as we previewed the film in the luxurious comfort of the heavily cushioned seats in their viewing room.

The film aired on the following Tuesday evening on three Los Angeles television channels.