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IAC-03-IAA.2.1.02

ARTHUR RUDOLPH AND THE ROCKET THAT TOOK US TO THEMOON

Marsha FreemanAssociate Editor

21st Century Science & TechnologyWashington, DC

USAkrafft@erols.com

ABSTRACTFor hundreds of years, writersimaginatively transported us to theMoon by angels, dreams, and cannonfire. Space pioneer Arthur Rudolphmanaged the rocket program thatallowed man, for the first time, to setfoot upon the lunar surface.

Rudolph’s management of theSaturn V rocket program was theculmination of a 40-year career inspace technology development, thathe began at the age of 24, workingalong side rocket enthusiast MaxValier. After Valier’s death, Rudolphdesigned his own, improved liquidrocket engine. He was one of the firstmen hired by the German Army towork on rocket experiments, based onthe innovations he had made. Following his work on the World WarII A-4 rocket, Rudolph

came to the United States, workingfor the U.S. Army on the earliestintermediate range intercontinentalballistic missiles, including asmanager of the Pershing I project.

Following PresidentKennedy’s 1961 commitment to landa man on the Moon, Arthur Rudolphwas given the responsibility ofmanaging the rocket program to carryout Kennedy’s mandate. The Saturn Vrocket program was the most complexengineering, manufacturing, andmanagement task in history.

While most people with such alifetime of accomplishment are ableto retire and enjoy their later years,Arthur Rudolph was subjected, in theearly 1980s, to a `̀ Nazi-hunting’‘witch-hunt by the Justice Department. Driven from the U.S., Rudolph, waslater exonerated by the Germangovernment, but was never able toreturn to his adopted country.

But Arthur Rudolph will beremembered in the history ofastronautics for his earlycontributions, and for the success ofthe rocket that took men to the Moon.

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MODEST BEGINNINGSArthur Rudolph was born on

November 9, 1906 in the small villageof Stepfershausen. (Figure 1) Hisparents were farmers–something hedecided he would not be, at a youngage. From childhood, Arthur Rudolphexpressed an interest in and passionfor things mechanical, and used everyopportunity to examine how theagricultural implements and otherequipment in his small worldfunctioned. (1)

Arthur Rudolph’s father diedin 1915 during the First World War,leaving Arthur and his youngerbrother Walter the responsibility, andthe chores, of the farm. Afterattending his village school, heattended the equivalent of a highschool for three years, and then leftfor this city–Bremen–where heworked in the silver-working industry,and underwent training in metalworking and forging.

But he longed to be in a bigcity, with new opportunities. In 1926,he had read in a newspaper, an articlewith a picture of the Moon,advertising a novel by Otto Gail,about a flight to Venus. He wasintrigued.

Arriving in Berlin in 1928, hewas a toolmaker at the R. Stock &Company machine tool factory, andlater continued his studies, graduatingin 1930 with an equivalent bachelorsdegree in mechanical engineering. (2)

Arthur Rudolph reports that hewas a heavy smoker, and one day, apack of cigarettes he bought had apicture of Robert Goddard and hisrocket on it! When a student, he read

Hermann Oberth’s 1929 book, Wegezur Raumschiffahrt as soon as it waspublished. (3) And, being in Berlin,gave him the opportunity that sameyear, to see Frau im Mond, thepopular movie that convinced youngmen, such as Arthur Rudolph andKrafft Ehricke, that making spacetravel a reality was what they wantedto do with the rest of their lives.

On May 1, 1930, ArthurRudolph started a new job, at themanufacturing plant owned by Dr.Paul Heylandt, which producedcompressed liquid gases, includingliquid oxygen, for German industry.During a tour of the plant on his firstday, “we walked through the halls andalso the machine shop, and I was notvery impressed with that, because Ihad seen better ones before,” ArthurRudolph recalled in an interview in1992. (4)

“But finally we went into thebackyard, and there I saw a strangecontraption. “What is that?” Rudolphasked. “That is the test stand of MaxValier,’ ‘’ the fellow giving the tourreplied. “And when he said, `MaxValier,’ my ears picked up,” Rudolphreports.

After quitting time on thesecond day of his job at Heylandt,Arthur Rudolph, “heard this loudnoise, and I ran outside to see what itwas.” Max Valier and his assistantWalter Riedel were testing a small,liquid-fueled rocket engine. ArthurRudolph asked Valier if he could useanother assistant to conduct hisexperiments. He replied that “hecould use all the help he could get,”Rudolph recalls. (Franklin, p 17)

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Just two weeks later, on May17th, Max Valier would die in ArthurRudolph’s arms. During the test of therocket engine on a Saturday at theHeylandt works, as the pressure wasturned higher in the engine, whichwas about a foot long and four or fiveinches in diameter, it exploded,shooting metal shrapnel in alldirections. Valier died withinminutes, and Walter Riedel andArthur Rudolph were lucky to escapewith their lives. (5)

Happily, neither amateurrocket experimenter was about to giveup, and Arthur Rudolph took on thechallenge of moving rockettechnology forward, by improving Valier’s rocket engine design.

THE LAMPSHADE ENGINEMax Valier’s rocket engine

used a “sprinkling can” type ofinjection system, where the fuel wasdelivered through small holes, and inall directions. The holes were difficultto drill, according to Rudolph, whichled to an uneven distribution ofpropellant, and uneven combustion.The liquid oxygen flowed along thewalls of the combustion chamber, butthe inlet areas were not wellcontrolled.

The rocket was prone tooverheat, and glowing red spots andburn-throughs developed on the wallof the combustion chamber. Thiscaused spikes in pressure, which inturn, created severe explosive jolts inthe engine.

Arthur Rudolph replaced the“sprinkling can” with a lampshade-type injection system for the fuel and

oxygen through ring slots, whichcould be more easily manufactured.(Figure 2)

With his new design, Rudolphwas able to obtain a smooth,controlled burn. The propellantdistribution was very even, and theinlets were adjustable. (6) Now, hewas ready for some real experiments.

Arthur Rudolph, WalterRiedel, and their boss as Heylandt,Alfons Pietsch, continued in Valier’sfootsteps, and even got so far as apublic demonstration of a rocket carat Tempelhof Airport, in the Spring of 1931.

With Pietsch behind thewheel, the crew tried to start theengine. No ignition. Arthur Rudolphreports: “I took a cigarette and threwit into the combustion chamberthrough the nozzle, and yelled, `Fullpower. Ignition.’ and Pietsch startedthe engine.”

The automobile began tomove at good speed, and thedemonstration was a success. ArthurRudolph remembered years later, that“the applause was good, but the netincome was equal to zero,”considering what they had spent toprepare it. The money from the fewpaying observers did not even pay forthe cost of the fuel. (7)

Meanwhile, Wernher vonBraun and a band of unemployedmachinists, engineers, and rocketenthusiasts, under the auspices of theGerman Society for Space Travel, were carrying out their own amateurexperiments in the Berlin suburb ofReinickendorf, and Arthur Rudolphdecided to see if they were faring any

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better than he.The observation Arthur

Rudolph made about these earlyefforts was similar to that of WalterDornberger, then directing theresearch for the German Army onrocket technology. There were noinstruments to measure the thrust ofthe rocket engine, and von Braunexplained that instead, they weredoing theoretical calculations! ArthurRudolph went back to his ownexperiments.

In May1932, deep into theDepression, both Arthur Rudolph andAlfons Pietsch became unemployed.Determined to continue their rocketengine development work, Pietschapproached various industrial firmsfor support, but “nobody had a pennyfor our ideas,” Rudolph reports. (8)

Finally, the German Army,under the guidance of (later) Gen.Walter Dornberger, did provide theintrepid team with 100 marks for theconstruction and testing for their newengine, and the establishment of asmall laboratory. But it was far fromsmooth sailing.

When Rudolph and Pietschwere half finished, the money had runout. Arthur’s future wife, Martha,contributed the funds she hadsquirreled away, which helped, butwas not enough. Finally, Dornbergerthrew in an additional 300 marks, andthe project was completed in August,1934. (9)

During this time, ArthurRudolph made trips each day to thepatent office, and “read all he couldfind about rockets and space travel.”(Figure 3) He also entered a patent for

his engine design. (10)Von Braun reports that

Rudolph was hired by the Army as acivilian, like himself , when heshowed up with the “completealcohol-oxygen rocket power-plant”that he had designed, “which madetwo wholly successful static runs atfirst trial.” (11)

By 1934, the Army hadestablished the experimental rocketresearch and test station atKummersdorf, and after thesuccessful tests of the Rudolph rocketengine, it was finally time to designalso the rocket. The entire assemblywas to be called an Aggregate.

The Aggregate-1, or A-1rocket was built but never flighttested, due to a lack of availablemethods for guiding and controllingrockets. Arthur Rudolph’s engine, theheart of the A-1, worked fine, butthere was no ability to stabilize theassembly in flight. (Figure 4)

Finally, two successful tests ofthe A-2, outfitted with a gyroscope forstability, brought the German rocketprogram into its own. (12)

To move on to the larger A-3,Arthur Rudolph was given the task ofcompleting the test stand, which hadbeen designed by Walter Riedel,ordering the equipment, and hiringmore people for the project. (13) Thisearly management experience wouldserve him well in later years.

On December 4, 1937, the A-3performed its first flight, and whilethe propulsion system performed tospecification, again the lack ofadequate guidance and controlplagued the system.

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A year before that, it hadbecome clear to Dornberger that alarger, more remote rocket test stationwas needed, and at von Braun’ssuggestion, the site chosen was atPeenemuende along the Pomeraniancoast. In May 1937, Arthur andMartha Rudolph moved to the near-bytown of Zinnowitz, and their daughterMarianne was born there on the 26th

of November. (Figure 5)

ROCKETS AND RETALIATIONGen. Dornberger may have

convinced the military brass tofinance the establishment of thepremier rocket research anddevelopment facility in the world, butin return, the Army wanted results.The design specifications for the nextrocket in the series, the A-4, was to bethe first designed to carry a warhead.

Following the decision tomove forward, Arthur Rudolph wasresponsible for outfitting the newresearch center at Peenemuende, andstarted ordering the machinery. “Iwrote out my requirements, wrote itmyself,” he reports, “for hundreds ofmachine tools. Then I went to [theLuftwaffe] and they ordered what Iwanted without any question. It wasfantastic; fantastic. And that made itpossible to establish that marvelousplace, Peenemuende.” (14)

But Arthur Rudolph’s lifewould take a turn for the much worseafter the August 17-18, 1943 Britishair raid on the Peenemuende center.The SS was now running the A-4production program, which had beenpropagandistically been renamed theV-2, for “Vergeltung,” or

“retaliation,” for the carpet bombingthat was underway of German cities.(Freeman, p124)

The underground rocketmanufacturing facility, Mittelwerk, inthe Harz Mountains, was run by the SS. Arthur Rudolph recalled: “I hadthe overpowering, awful feeling that Iwas trapped in a cage like an animal,and that I was caught in the claws ofthe SS system.” (15)

Those among the forcedlaborers who raised questions orobjections to the hideous conditionsin the tunnels were hanged. Thoseamong the German workers ortechnical managers, like ArthurRudolph, were threatened with beingsent to concentration camps, andsome were. When Arthur Rudolphbegan work in the tunnels he weighed180 pounds. By the time the war wasnearing its end, and productionstopped in the tunnels, he weighed126 pounds. His wife, Martha,believed that if he had continued inthose conditions for six more months,he would he died there. (16)

Finally, the war was over.Some members of the von Braunteam, including Arthur Rudolph,were, in August of 1945, deployed toCuxhaven to participate in OperationBackfire, firing V-2s for the British.And then, finally, they were off toAmerica.

BUILDING AMERICA’S ARSENALIn November 1945, Arthur

Rudolph left for Paris, and then byship, to the United States. The vonBraun team worked in El Paso at Fort

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Bliss and at White Sands, testing therockets they already knew how to fly.

In 1950, Arthur Rudolph andthe von Braun team were transferredto the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville,Alabama, to finally start some realwork. The Army established theOrdnance Guided Missile Center atthe Arsenal, under Major JamesHamill, with von Braun as technicaldirector, and Arthur Rudolph wasmade technical director of the A-4-derived Redstone rocket. (17)

During his work on theRedstone rocket, Arthur Rudolph tooka top management course, to hone hisskills for guiding large projects.

He commented later on hisobservations on what needed to bechanged in the management of systemof military procurement. “Accordingto my experience, all of the U.S.weapons systems were accompaniedby guidance and control failures. Iproposed that they only order[components] from such firms thathad shown themselves to besuperior.”

This proposal was rejected,on the basis of money, as the militarylooked for a cheaper variant, “whichwould undoubtedly show the sameseries of failures.” (18)

The German space pioneers inHuntsville knew that for both military requirements and to ever get intospace, larger, more capable rocketsthan the war-time V-2 were required.

In March 1956, ArthurRudolph put together a plan for themass production of the Redstonemissile by industry.

His job was to crack down on

the contractors, and try to keep theprogram on schedule. He relates thathe went to visit the Chrysler plant inDetroit, to find out why their work onthe Redstone had been delayed. Hewas told that there was a part missing,which turned out to be a detergent!

“That a rocket, on account of apiece of washing soap could not becompleted, was the absolute negativeheight in the breakdown-rich historyof the U.S. rocket work,” he reported.

Eventually, the design of theRedstone was standardized, whichrequired that Arthur Rudolph “untangle various functions and stillhave them all work.” (19)

In 1958, the Redstones weredeployed as mobile missiles, backingup NATO forces in Europe, and werereplaced by the first multi-staterocket, the Jupiter, developed inHuntsville, by 1960.

The Jupiter missiles weredesigned for an intermediate range of1,500 miles, and were developed infacilities at the newly-establishedArmy Ballistic Missile Agency(ABMA), under Gen. John Medaris.

The Jupiter rocket obtained itsplace in history, when, at the end ofJanuary 1958, it lofted America’s firstsatellite, Explorer 1, into Earth orbit.

In 1956, the decision wasmade that the U.S. Army needed a“shoot and scoot” mobile missile,which meant it had to be solid-fueled.This was the Pershing program.

Arthur Rudolph was made theproject director, with $500 million forits development. He assembled ateam, and took bids. He visited thepotential contractors in person, and,

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knowing the guidance system wascritical, chose the Bendix plant inNew Jersey for the job. Afterinspecting their facilities, he notedthat it had the best precision machinetools for the job, which were made inGermany! “That was the firm for us!”he decided. (20)

The creed that Arthur Rudolphdeveloped to manage the Pershingrocket was that “nothing could fallthrough the cracks.” Research anddevelopment laboratories wereexpanded for testing vibration,hearing, and other conditions thatwould face the rocket in flight. (21)

Following the uproar after theSoviet launch of Sputnik inNovember 1957, the NationalAeronautics and SpaceAdministration (NASA) wasestablished. The heart of the newcivilian space program would berockets, and the von Braun team wastransferred from the Army–all butArthur Rudolph. He was consideredirreplaceable on the Pershingprogram. (Figure 6)

In 1960, Arthur Rudolph, forhis management of the Pershingmissile program, received theExceptional Civilian Service award,the highest civilian award in theArmy.

During 1960, the Pershingproject director made trips for theArmy to Italy, France, and WestGermany, to promote the purchase ofthe missiles for air defense in Europe.But his goal was to rejoin his friendsand colleagues to get the U.S. intospace. (22)

Finally, in 1961, Arthur

Rudolph did so, when he transferredto NASA. President Kennedy hadchallenged the U.S. to land a man onthe Moon.

THE MOON ROCKETProviding the transportation to

take astronauts to the Moon wouldrequire the greatest mobilization ofengineering manpower, and technicaland manufacturing capability in thisnation’s history. Arthur Rudolph’sjobs was to manage the Saturn Vrocket program to make sure they gotthere safely, and on the President’stime table.

In 1962, at a meeting at NASAheadquarters in Washington, ArthurRudolph put forward his list of basicrequirements for the Apollo rocket,and a mission plan that was based onhis experience managing the Pershingprogram. In 1963, he was named theprogram manager for the Saturn V.

He quickly examined theproblems that NASA’s Jet PropulsionLaboratory (JPL) was having with theunmanned Ranger lunar program, tosee what lessons could be learned.

He reported later that JPL hadcomplained that the design,engineering, and testing demands atNASA’s Marshall Space flight Centerin Huntsville, were “too strict,” incomparison to the way they werecarrying out their effort.

Arthur Rudolph responded: “Iwas so angry that I jumped up andsaid, `you still don’t seem to haveunderstood that if there is the slightestdoubt about the ability of the systemto function, you must, through longand repeated improvements and tests,

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make sure that no flight failure willoccur. If you don’t introduce thisprinciple in the Ranger project, it willremain a failure.’ ” (23)

Arthur Rudolph’smanagement of the massive Saturn Vrocket program involved his personaltracking of all of the aspects of thesystem. He had a chart in his officeshowing all of the components, largeand small, to be able to immediatelysee their progress. This made theentire program transparent, andprovided an overview of the massivecoordination. Every problem wasdealt with, in excruciating detail, bythe program manager and his staff.(24).

The goal of the Saturn Vprogram was a rocket system with99% reliability. This required ameticulous attention to detail,extensive testing, stringent qualitycontrol, and management techniquesto coordinate and supervise more than20,000 industrial contractors and7,000 civil service NASA employees.(Figure 7)

NASA’s official history of theSaturn V program reports that evenNASA Administrator, James Webb,who “prided himself on managerialtechniques and skills,” was impressedwith the Marshall Center’sorganization of the Moon rocketeffort. “Given the diversity of theprime contractors and their armies ofsubcontractors and vendors...theclockwork efficiency and thereliability of the Saturn vehicles wereremarkable.”

The NASA history alsoreports that “even after the Saturn V

program was over, MSFC stillreceived many requests frombusinesses and managers asking, `howdid you do it?’ “ (25)

The proof of the pudding wasin the results: A total of 32 Saturnlaunches, including nine mannedlunar mission; the first men to orbitthe Moon; and the first men to landthere.

For Arthur Rudolphpersonally, the successful test flightsof the Saturn V were proof that hisprogram was a success. On his 61st

birthday, in November 1967, heinformed NASA he would retire thefollowing year. When Apollo 8orbited the Moon during Christmas of1968, Arthur Rudolph knew he haddone his job. (26)

For his management of theSaturn V program, Arthur Rudolphreceived both the Exceptional ServiceMedal and the Distinguished Medalfrom NASA.

His job of developing andproducing the rocket to take men tothe Moon completed, Arthur Rudolphretired from the space agency, androcket research, on January 1, 1969.

On July 20, 1969, NeilArmstrong and Buzz Aldrin tookmankind’s first steps on the Moon.They could not have done it withoutArthur Rudolph’s Saturn V.

When Arthur Rudolph retiredfrom federal service, hisCongressman, Rep. Robert Jones,entered a tribute to him into theCongressional Record. He concludedwith: “I commend him on hisoutstanding achievements in ourNation’s missile and space programs,

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and I wish Dr. Rudolph and his familyevery happiness in their future years.”(27)

Unfortunately, not many ofArthur Rudolph’s remaining yearswould be happy ones.

A TRAVESTY OF JUSTICEWhile living quietly in

retirement in California, ArthurRudolph received a letter inSeptember 1982 from the Office ofSpecial Investigations (OSI), of theU.S. Department of Justice. The letterasked if he would meet with them andanswer some questions about hisactivities during the Second WorldWar.

Knowing he had nothing tohide, and foolishly trusting thehonesty and integrity ofrepresentatives of the U.S.government, he agreed to the meeting,without a lawyer present.

Thus began a battle betweenthe “Nazi-hunting” OSI and theRudolph family to counter chargesthat Arthur Rudolph was guilty of warcrimes. The tactics used by the OSI,of threats, intimation, and chargeswithout evidence, would be repeatedmore than a decade later, in the effortto frame computer scientist Dr. WenHo Lee, on equally bogus charges ofnuclear spying for the People’sRepublic of China.

In secret, Arthur Rudolph,then ill and 77 years old, signed anagreement with the JusticeDepartment on November 28, 1983 toleave the United States, to avoidprosecution for war crimes. Arthurand Martha Rudolph left for West

Germany on March 27, 1984. Whenthe news of his having left forGermany became public late that year,a political mobilization began on thepart of not mainly his formercolleagues in the German rocket team,who were, themselves, undersurveillance and possible threat, butby his American military and civiliancolleagues. (28) (Figure 8)

Arthur Rudolph applied forGerman citizenship after he arrived,and on July 19, 1984, the Germangovernment formally asked the OSIfor the evidence it had against him..

Nearly one year later, the OSIfinally responded to the request. TheGerman government, after anextensive investigation, determined inMarch 1987, that there was no basisfor prosecuting him, and ArthurRudolph was granted West Germancitizenship.

Arthur Rudolph passed awayon January 1, 1996, without beingexonerated by the U.S. government inthis travesty of justice. But onSeptember 5, 2003, some justice wasserved in this case that is a stain onthe American democratic principle offairness.

The newspaper Forwardreported that Neal Sher, the formerchief of staff in the Washington officeof the International Commission onHolocaust Era Insurance Claims, hadbeen disbarred. Sher had beeninvestigated for misappropriatingfunds for personal use.

Neal Sher was one of theofficials of the Office of SpecialInvestigations who interrogatedArthur Rudolph in a California hotel

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room in 1982.Arthur Clarke recently

observed that the 20th century will beremembered, not for the world wars,or other horrible events, but for thefirst manned landing on the Moon.

Arthur Rudolph will beremembered by history as the manwho managed the Saturn V rocketprogram, that took men to the Moon.

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thankthe Rudolph family--Arthur, Martha,and Marianne–for their participationin preparing this paper, and theirencouragement and support.

Notes (1) Thomas Franklin, An American inExile (Huntsville, AL; ChristopherKaylor Company, 1987), p.7(2) Franz Kurowski, RaketenpionierArthur Rudolph (Inning, Germany:Vowinckel Verlag, 2001), p. 18(3) Ibid. p. 18(4) Interview with by the author withArthur Rudolph, 1992(5) Franklin, p. 17-18(6) Rudolph interview(7) Kurowski, p. 22(8) Ibid. p. 24(9) Ibid. p. 24(10) Ibid. P. 26(11) Marsha Freeman, How We Got tothe Moon: The Story of the GermanySpace Pioneers, (Washington, DC:21st Century Science Associates,1993) p. ??(12) Ibid, p. 91(13) Kurowski, p. 27

(14) Franklin, p. 48(15) Ibid. p. 76(16) Freeman, p. 133(17) Ibid. P. 185(18) Kurowski, p. 145(19) Ibid. p. 148(20 Ibid. p. 150(21) Ibid. p. 151(22) Ibid. p. 158(23) Ibid. p. 161-162(24) Ibid. p. 168(25) Roger Bilstein, Stages to Saturn,(Washington, DC: NASA, SP-4206,1980), p. 399(26) Kurowski, p. 174(27) Franklin, p. 123(28) William E. Winterstein, GestapoUSA, (San Francisco: Robert D. Reed,2002), and Freeman.

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Figure 1

Arthur Rudolph (1906-1996), the manwho managed the Saturn V Moonrocket. This 1960 photograph wastaken before his transfer to NASA.Courtesy of Arthur Rudolph

Figure 2

Arthur Rudolph’s 1930 rocket enginedesign, as compared Max Valier’s.

Courtesy of Arthur Rudolph

Figure 3

In 1932, when this photograph wastaken, Arthur Rudolph was living inBerlin, working as an amateur rocketexperimenter.Courtesy of Arthur Rudolph

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Figure 4

The rocket engine designed by Arthur Rudolph was the heart of the A-1 rocket, builtby the Army at its experimental station in Kummersdorf. This photograph of theengine on a test stand was taken in 1934.Deutsches Museum

Figure 5

In May 1937, Arthur and Martha Rudolph moved to thetown of Zinnowitz, near the experimental rocket station atPeenemuende. In November ofthat year, Marianne was born.Here, the family in 1938. Courtesy of Arthur Rudolph

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Figure 6

Key members of the rocket team under Gen. John Medaris at the Army BallisticMissile Agency in Huntsville posed for this photograph, shortly before the Generalretired from the Army, in the Fall of 1959. Arthur Rudolph is in the light-coloredjacket.NASA, Marshall Space Flight Center

Figure 7

As manager of the Saturn Vrocket program, ArthurRudolph was responsiblefor supervising the work ofmore than 20,000 industrialcontractors, and more than 7,000 civil service employees.For his accomplishments, hereceived the ExceptionalService Medal, andDistinguished Service Medal by NASA.Courtesy of Arthur Rudolph

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Figure 8

The author with Arthur Rudolph at his home in Hamburg, Germany, during aninterview in 1992. Although he was not exonerated during his lifetime, his place inhistory is secure, as the man who built the rockets that took men to the Moon.William Jones