Aug 31 1959

From The Space Library

Tenth IAF meeting opened in London.

A House Committee Staff Report stated that lunar flights would originate from space platforms in earth orbit according to current planning. The final decision on the method to be used, "which must be made soon," would take into consideration the difficulty of space rendezvous between a space platform and space vehicles as compared with the difficulty of developing single vehicles large enough to proceed directly from the earth to the moon.

U.S. Congress, House, Committee on Science and Astronautics, Space Propulsion, Staff Report, 86th Congress, 1st Session (1959), p. 2.

In a paper presented to the Tenth International Astronautical Congress in London, England, Milton W. Rosen and F. Carl Schwenk described a five-stage launch vehicle for manned lunar exploration. The direct ascent technique would be used in landing an 8000-pound spacecraft on the moon and returning it to earth. The F-1 engine would power both the booster and second stage of the launch vehicle. The concepts presented in the paper had been developed between February and April.

Milton W. Rosen and F. Carl Schwenk, "A Rocket for Manned Lunar Exploration," Proceedings of the Tenth International Astronautical Congress, London, 1959 (1960).