Baby Satellite Launcher  

   The next step, after the moon expedition, in Von Braun’s plan for exploration of the planets would have been to explore Mars.  However, before that big of a mission could be planned, it would be necessary to launch different spaceships as preliminary steps. At the time, it was not even known whether space was deadly to living things.

 

   Because of this concern and, in order to start toward his dream, von Braun proposed this first step. He would need to provide proof that living things could survive in space.

 

 

   The 'Baby' Satellite Launcher was introduced in the as a way of gathering evidence about this problem.  As originally planned, its mission would be to take a biological payload (monkeys, mice, and insects) into orbit to determine the effects of cosmic radiation on their physiology. The information would be relayed back to Earth.

 

 

   It is interesting to note that it was first proposed in a June 27, 1953 issue of Colliers as a "baby space station" but as he got closer to 1957 and the actual launching of the world's first satellites, its name was changed and so was its mission. It was now called an “Artificial Satellite Launcher” and now, it would only launch instruments. Space technology was changing rapidly and so were the words to describe it. Still, it preceded the satellites that would bring in the Space Age just a few years hence.

 

 

   For this mission Von Braun designed a small, three stage rocket.  In one way it looked like a smaller version of the ferry rocket.  However, its shape was simpler and it did not have the winged upper stages of the ferry rocket.  Still, its shape was exciting, futuristic, and seemed to point to the stars. 

 

 

   It quickly became a celebrity on its own right, being featured in a low budget movie called "Project Moon Base".  A simple and elegant design, the baby satellite launcher stirred the imaginations of many people.

 

 

Links to Additional information available in the Trade Zone.

 

A Precision Design Drawing of this Spaceship  -----------------------------------------

 

 

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Complete background information is available in the Spaceship Handbook

 

 

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This Spaceship is also featured in “Ad Astra per Aspera”

 

 

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