The first Moon race kicked off 50 years ago - Sunday

Larry Klaes sent a clip of an e-mail from Jim Oberg that had an e-mail
from Sven Grahn that reminded us of the first Pioneer Spacecraft that
attempted to go to the Moon.
Google pointed to the Astronautix listing, see here and below, and Sven
has a website that has a lot of information.  See some below as well.

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>Sent: Friday, August 15, 2008 11:25 AM
>Subject: [FPSPACE] The first Moon race kicked off 50 years ago - Sunday

> On August 17, 1958, the USAF launched the first Moon probe on a
Thor-Able
> rocket. It did not get far- exploded after 77 seconds. But this launch
> kicked of  the first race to the Moon, the unpiloted version. It
> culminated a little more than a year later with Luna-2 hitting the Moon
> and Luna-3 taking pictures of the hidden side.
>
> Sven
>
> Sven Grahn
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Those first attempts were not all that successful but finally we got it
right but not until after Russia had their success and even got pictures
of the far side of the Moon.
Races can be like that, sometimes you win by a fingertip
<http://voices.washingtonpost.com/olympics/2008/08/swim_flash_no_7_for_phelps.html>.
:-)
- LRK -

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http://www.astronautix.com/project/pioneer.htm
/Program/: Pioneer. /Objective/: Planetary. /Type/: Lunar. /Overview/:
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory Pioneer series were the first US probes
sent towards the moon. Later Pioneers explored the heliocentric space
environment and were the first spacecraft to reach the outer planets and
to escape from the solar system.

*1958 August 17 - * *Pioneer (1). * /Spacecraft/: Pioneer 0-1-2
<http://www.astronautix.com/craft/pioer012.htm>. /Mass/: 38 kg (83 lb).
/Launch Site/: Cape Canaveral
<http://www.astronautix.com/sites/capveral.htm>. /Launch Vehicle/: Delta
<http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/delta.htm>.
snip
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I didn't get a chance to work with NASA at Ames until 1983 and Pioneers
6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ,11, and 12 were already flying around the Sun, on their
way out of the Solar System and flying around Venus.  The early Pioneers
to the Moon were history.
- LRK -


Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
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http://www.astronautix.com/project/pioneer.htm
/Program/: Pioneer. /Objective/: Planetary. /Type/: Lunar. /Overview/:
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory Pioneer series were the first US probes
sent towards the moon. Later Pioneers explored the heliocentric space
environment and were the first spacecraft to reach the outer planets and
to escape from the solar system.

Major Events:
   * 1958 August 17 - Pioneer (1).  Spacecraft: Pioneer 0-1-2. Mass: 38
kg (83 lb). Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Vehicle: Delta.
     First US lunar attempt. The first US Air Force lunar probe, using
a Thor-Able booster. An explosion ripped it apart 77 seconds after launch.
   * 1958 October 11 - Pioneer 1.  Spacecraft: Pioneer 0-1-2. Mass: 38
kg (83 lb). Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Vehicle: Delta.
     Set distance record; failed to reach moon.
   * 1958 November 8 - Pioneer 2.  Spacecraft: Pioneer 0-1-2. Mass: 39
kg (85 lb). Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Vehicle: Delta.
     Pioneer 2 was launched from the Atlantic Missile Range, using a
Thor-Able booster, the Air Force acting as executive agent to NASA. The
86.3-pound instrumented payload, intended as a lunar probe, failed to
reach escape velocity.
   * 1958 December 6 - Pioneer 3.  Spacecraft: Pioneer 3-4. Mass: 6.00
kg (13.20 lb). Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Vehicle: Jupiter.
     Failed to reach moon; provided radiation data. Pioneer III, the
third U.S.-IGY intended lunar probe under the direction of NASA with the
Army acting as executive agent, was launched from the Atlantic Missile
Range by a Juno II rocket. The primary objective, to place the 12.95
pound scientific payload in the vicinity of the moon, failed. Pioneer
III reached an altitude of approximately 70,000 miles and revealed that
the earth's radiation belt comprised at least two distinct bands.
   * 1959 March 3 - Pioneer 4.  Spacecraft: Pioneer 3-4. Mass: 6.00 kg
(13.20 lb). Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Vehicle: Jupiter.
     The fourth U.S.-IGY lunar probe effort, Pioneer IV, a joint
project of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency and Jet Propulsion
Laboratory under the direction of NASA, was launched by a Juno II rocket
from the Atlantic Missile Range. Intended to impact on the lunar
surface, Pioneer IV achieved earth-moon trajectory, passing within
60,200 km of the moon before going into permanent orbit around the sun.
   * 1959 September 24 - Atlas C Able explodes on pad during static
test..  Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Vehicle: Atlas.

snip
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http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/histind/USMoon/USMoon.html
Mission profiles of early U.S. lunar probes /
Sven Grahn/

At the end of 1957 and early months of 1958 many persons and
organizations in the U.S.A. were jockeying for positions to get the task
of answering the "Sputnik challenge". The pressure from politicians in
the U.S. executive branch and in Congress on those responsible for
missiles and space development to quickly come up with significant space
exploits was intense. The Air Force Ballistic Missile Division in Los
Angeles (with the Space Technology Laboratories as their engineering
organization) under Brigadier General Bernard Schriever was one
organization that thought it had the necessary know-how and clout to do
the job. The same was true for the U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency
under General Medaris and with Wernher von Braun in charge of its
engineering organisation in Huntsville, Alabama.

Thus, the White House announced on 27 March 1958 that it had approved a
program "to determine our capability of exploring space in the vicinity
of the moon and to obtain useful data concerning the moon". The program
was announced by Defense Secretary Neil H McElroy. The Air Force
Ballistic Missile Division in Los Angeles was assigned a program of
three lunar probes using a "Thor-Vanguard" system with "a third stage to
be developed". The Army Ballistic Missile Agency in Huntsville, Alabama
was authorized to "undertake one and possibly two lunar probes" using
modified Jupiter-C rockets. Overall responsibility for the lunar probe
launches was assigned to the Defense Department's Advanced Research
Projects Agency (ARPA).

The Air Force project had its roots in the "Able project" which was
probably designed to provide a rocket that could test  re-entry vehicle
(RV) technology for the ICBM that had not yet been flown successfully.
To achieve the speeds necessary to test a reasonably sized RV the USAF
and its contractor the Space Technology Labs used a Thor IRBM with the
second stage of the Vanguard as the upper stage (see picture on the
right of second stages being prepared). This combination was test flown
three times in 1958, the first time less than a month after the White
House announcement and the last less than a  month before the first
lunar probe attempt. (Launch dates for the Thor-Able 0 rocket are: 23
April, 9 July and 23 July 1958).

When NASA was formed in October of 1958, all military space research
projects run by the military organisations were transferred to it. This
included the four remaining flights in McElroy's (ARPA's) origonal plan
and the follow-on space probes planned by the USAF. This plan included a
plan to launch two probes (weighing 169 kg) to Venus in the launch
window opening in June 1959 followed by a lunar orbit mission. However,
after the Soviet success with Luna 1 the plans were changed to instead
launch the follow-on provbes to lunar orbit in the hope of beating the
Soviet Union to this goal. This follow-on Pioneer program used the
Atlas-Able rocket and even before the first flight the goal of
photographing the far side of the Moon was snatched by the Soviet union.
Howevber, the first probe did carry a camera - it was too late to change
the plans. howveer, the two following oprobes did not carry a camera,
but instead more radiation monitoring instruments. However, the goal of
achieving lunar orbit before the Soviet union could still be achieved.
snip
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http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/chrono1.html
Chronology of Lunar and Planetary Exploration (1957-1964)


     Mission Timeline

* * *| *1957*
|-- Sputnik 1
<http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/MasterCatalog?sc=1957-001B> - 4
October 1957 - Earth Orbiter
|-- Sputnik 2
<http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/MasterCatalog?sc=1957-002A> - 3
November 1957 - Earth Orbiter
|-- Vanguard TV3
<http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/MasterCatalog?sc=VAGT3> - 6
December 1957 - Attempted Earth Orbiter (Launch Failure)
| *1958*
|-- Explorer 1
<http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/MasterCatalog?sc=1958-001A> - 1
February 1958 - Earth Orbiter
|-- Vanguard 1
<http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/MasterCatalog?sc=1958-002B> - 17
March 1958 - Earth Orbiter
|-- Pioneer 0
<http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/MasterCatalog?sc=ABLE1> - 17 August
1958 - Attempted Lunar Orbit (Launch Failure)
|-- Luna 1958A
<http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/tent_launch.html#luna1958a> - 23
September 1958 - Attempted Lunar Impact? (Launch Failure)
|-- Pioneer 1
<http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/MasterCatalog?sc=1958-007A> - 11
October 1958 - Attempted Lunar Orbit (Launch Failure)
|-- Luna 1958B
<http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/tent_launch.html#luna1958b> - 12
October 1958 - Attempted Lunar Impact? (Launch Failure)
|-- Pioneer 2
<http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/MasterCatalog?sc=PION2> - 8
November 1958 - Attempted Lunar Orbit (Launch Failure)
|-- Luna 1958C
<http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/tent_launch.html#luna1958c> - 4
December 1958 - Attempted Lunar Impact? (Launch Failure)
|-- Pioneer 3
<http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/MasterCatalog?sc=1958-008A> - 6
December 1958 - Attempted Lunar Flyby (Launch Failure)
| *1959**
snip
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http://burro.astr.cwru.edu/stu/advanced/20th_far_pioneers.html
Pioneers (1958-2003)

Overview

Almost everyone has heard of Pioneer 10 and 11, the two spacecraft that
were the first to visit the outer solar system. But very few people have
ever known that there were earlier and later Pioneer craft that visited
the inner solar system. There were over a dozen Pioneer missions, and
they helped scientists to learn more about spacecraft operations and the
environments of interplanetary space.

The Terran and Lunar Pioneers

Pioneer 0

   * Also called Thor-Able 1, Able 1
   * Launched August 17, 1958 at 12:18:00 UTC
   * Orbital mass: 38.1 kg

This spacecraft was the first U.S. attempt at a lunar mission. The
Pioneer 0 probe was designed to go into orbit around the moon and
carried a TV camera and other instruments as part of the first
International Geophysical Year (IGY) science payload. The spacecraft was
destroyed by an explosion of the first (Thor booster) stage 77 seconds
after launch at 16 km altitude, 16 km downrange over the Atlantic.
Failure was suspected to be due to a ruptured fuel or oxygen line.
Erratic telemetry signals were received from the payload and upper
stages for 123 seconds after the explosion, and the upper stages were
tracked to impact in the ocean.

snip
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

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