March 1950

From The Space Library

Radiobiological Laboratory established at Austin, Tex., by the USAF School of Aviation Medicine and the University of Texas.

Hypersonic wind tunnel became operational at Wright-Patterson AFB.

Heinz Hermann Koelle of the GfW completes the first draft of his paper Verfahren zur Bestimmung der minimalen Startgewichte Und der gunstigsten Konstruktions grundwerte von Raumfshrzeugen (Method for determining the minimum starting weights and the most favorable design basic values of spacecraft). This paper would be published by the GfW in May of 1950 as Technical Report #5. Koelle would make a series of calculations of payload weights and staging requirements for an optimal booster for placing space stations in orbit. He would present this material to Wernher von Braun later in 1950. Von Braun then asked Koelle to apply his methods to von Braun's systems which he had postulated in his (as yet) unpublished manuscript Das Mars Projekt.