Viking Vanguard

• Free Viking Slots
• Viking Vanguard Slots
• Free Penney Viking Slots

The Viking rocket series of sounding rockets were designed and built by the Glenn L. Martin Company (now Lockheed-Martin) under the direction of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL).

Origins[edit]

After World War II, the United States experimented with captured GermanV-2 rockets as part of the Hermes program. Based on these experiments the U.S. decided in 1946 to develop its own large liquid-fueled rocket design, to be called Neptune but changed to Viking. The intent was to provide an independent U.S. capability in rocketry, to continue the Hermes program after the V-2s were expended, and to provide a vehicle better suited to scientific research. The U.S. Navy, in particular, needed a vehicle to study the atmosphere and learn how to predict bad weather which would affect the fleet.

The V-2 would tumble in the rarefied atmosphere at high altitudes. Having been designed as a weapon, the V-2 carried a large payload, approximately one ton of high explosive. This was more than was considered necessary for the scientific instrument payload of a high-altitude research rocket, but in the case of the V-2, used for research, most of the payload was lead ballast required for stable flight,^[1]:250 limiting the potential speed and altitude that could be reached with the smaller payloads typically needed for early scientific investigations.

The United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), partly at the instigation of the American Rocket Society (ARS), chose to build the advanced sounding rocket. Milton Rosen, head of the Viking project, credits rocket pioneer Robert H. Goddard, the ARS, the California Institute of Technology and the V-2 for the 'profound influence' they had on the design of the rocket.^[2]:26 Twelve Viking rockets flew from 1949 to 1955.^[2]:28

The Viking was the most advanced large, liquid-fueled rocket being developed in the U.S. at the time.^[3]

Design features[edit]

The Viking was roughly half the size, in terms of mass and power, of the V-2. Both were actively guided rockets, fueled with the same propellant (Ethyl alcohol and liquid oxygen), which were fed to a single large pump-fed engine by two turbine-driven pumps. The Reaction MotorsXLR10-RM-2 engine was the largest liquid-fueledrocket engine developed in the United States up to that time, producing 92.5 kN (20,800 lb_f) (sea level) and 110.5 kN (24,800 lb_f) (vacuum) of thrust. Isp was 179.6 s (1.761 km/s) and 214.5 s (2.104 km/s) respectively, with a mission time of 103 seconds. As was also the case for the V-2, hydrogen peroxide was converted to steam to drive the turbopump that fed fuel and oxidizer into the engine. As its V-2 counterpart, it also was regeneratively cooled.^[4][5]

New Viking Staff. November 15, 2020. Alongside changes in the education system to work around the novel coronavirus, PHS is welcoming 12 new staff members this year, ranging from a new librarian to. The Viking Vanguard and Viking Student Media were recently recognized from the 2017 Murrow High School Journalism Awards Competition through Washington State University’s Edward R.

Viking pioneered important innovations over the V-2. One of the most significant for rocketry was the use of a gimbaled thrust chamber which could be swiveled from side to side on two axes for pitch and yaw control, dispensing with the inefficient and somewhat fragile graphite vanes in the engine exhaust used by the V-2. The rotation of the engine on the gimbals was controlled by gyroscopic inertial reference; this type of guidance system was invented by Robert H. Goddard, who had partial success with it before World War II intervened.^[2]:66 Roll control was by use of the turbopump exhaust to power reaction control system (RCS) jets on the fins. Compressed gas jets stabilized the vehicle after the main power cutoff. Similar devices are now extensively used in large, steerable rockets and in space vehicles. Another improvement was that initially the alcohol tank, and later the LOX tank also, were built integral with the outer skin, saving weight. The structure was also largely aluminum, as opposed to steel used in the V-2, thus shedding more weight.

Vikings 1 through 7 were slightly longer (about 15 m (49 ft)) than the V-2, but with a straight cylindrical body only 82 centimetres (32 in) in diameter, making the rocket quite slender. They had fairly large fins similar to those on the V-2. Vikings 8 through 14 were built with an enlarged airframe of improved design. The diameter was increased to 114 cm, while the length was reduced to 13 m (43 ft), altering the missile's 'pencil shape'. The fins were made much smaller and triangular. The added diameter meant more fuel and more weight, but the 'mass ratio', of fueled to empty mass, was improved to about 5:1, a record for the time.

Flight history[edit]

^[2]:236

Free Viking Slots

All except Viking 4 were flown from White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.

Achievements[edit]

While the underlying motivation for the Viking Project clearly had a national defense component, since it was a U.S. Navy program, it nevertheless established a number of early space exploration landmarks, some technological and some scientific.

Peaceful space travel and space exploration were clearly important objectives that energized many of the higher level instigators even of the German V-2 rocket program, which was funded by the German Army entirely for military purposes. Viking was probably the most ambitious program up to its time, which had significant objectives that were essentially scientific, accompanied by a desire to explore and advance rocket technology for more ambitious peaceful space exploration goals such as artificial earth satellites.^{[2]:230–235}

Technological advances pioneered by Viking included the following:

• An essentially all-aluminum airframe, with a mass ratio (fueled mass to empty vehicle mass) of about 5:1 for the improved (Viking 8 and later) model. This was a significant improvement over the V-2, which was largely constructed of steel. The altitude records achieved by Viking, for a single-stage rocket, were mostly the result of its light-weight structure.
• Thrust vector control by gimbaling the rocket motor, as opposed to the graphite vanes used by the German V-2 and the U.S. Army Redstone missiles. This method of control has become standard since, both for reliability and efficiency reasons.
• Control of the vehicle's orientation, after fuel exhaustion of the main engine, by small auxiliary jets, permitting programmed pointing of scientific instruments, etc.
• Extensive radio telemetry for both engineering and scientific data, which greatly reduced the number of test flights needed before useful results were obtained.

Among its scientific achievements, firsts up to their time, were:

• The highest altitude measurement of atmospheric density (by Viking 7).
• The highest altitude measurement of atmospheric winds (Viking 7).
• The first measurements of the atmospheric positive ion composition at high altitude (Viking 10).
• The highest altitude exposures of cosmic-ray emulsions (Vikings 9, 10, and 11).
• The highest altitude photographs of the Earth (Viking 11).

Through the Viking flights, NRL was first to measure temperature, pressure, density, composition and winds in the upper atmosphere and electron density in the ionosphere, and to record the ultraviolet spectra of the Sun.^[2]:234

On 24 May 1954, during a launching from White Sands, New Mexico, a camera mounted in Viking 11 took the first picture of a hurricane and a tropical storm, from altitudes of nearly 160 km (99 mi). The picture embraced an area more than 1,600 km (990 mi) in diameter, including Mexico and the area from Texas to Iowa. This was also the first natural-color picture of Earth from rocket altitudes, clearly showing its curvature.

Viking into Vanguard[edit]

The success NRL achieved in this series of experiments suggest that, with a more powerful engine and the addition of upper stages, the Viking rocket could be made a vehicle capable of launching an Earth satellite. The Viking was thus incorporated as the first stage of NRL's three-stage Project Vanguard vehicle which launched the second U.S. satellite. Two later rockets in the Viking series, Vanguard TV-0 (renamed from Viking 13) and Vanguard TV-1, substantially similar to Vikings 8 through 12, were used as suborbital test vehicles during Project Vanguard, before the first Vanguard vehicle, Vanguard TV-2, became available for test in the fall of 1957.^[7] and were designated Vanguard TV-0 and Vanguard TV-1 respectively.

Legacy and Status[edit]

The National Air and Space Museum contains a full-size cutaway reconstruction of Viking 12, built from original blueprints.^[8]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^Willy Ley (June 1951). Rockets, Missiles, and Space Travel. Dominion of Canada: Viking Press. OCLC716327624.
2. ^ ^abcdefMilton W. Rosen (1955). The Viking Rocket Story. New York: Harper & Brothers. OCLC317524549.
3. ^'History of Rocketry & Space Travel', revised edition, Wernher von Braun and Frederick I. Ordway III, Thomas Y. Crowell Co., New York, 1969, p. 151
4. ^'U.S. space-rocket liquid propellant engines'. b14643.de. Archived from the original on 1 November 2015. Retrieved 24 June 2015.
5. ^Winter, Frank H. (1990). 'Chapter 3 - Rockets Enter the Space Age'. Rockets Into Space. Harvard University Press. p. 66. Retrieved 24 June 2015.
6. ^'Viking'. Encyclopedia Astronautica.
7. ^Ordway, Frederick I.; Wakeford, Ronald C.International Missile and Spacecraft Guide, N.Y., McGraw-Hill, 1960, p. 208
8. ^'Viking Sounding Rocket'. National Air and Space Museum. Retrieved 5 December 2020.

External links[edit]

Adapted from:

• 1948 Rocket Will Double V-2's Record July 1947 article on original Neptune Program

These are some of the resources I have used when writing this blog. The information I have provided is in most parts my own work based on my experiences of collecting US awards and medals but this research confirms this and in some instances expands this knowledge. One of my more recent acquisitions (December 2017) “The Call of Duty” (John E Sandberg & Roger James Bender) has an abundance of information in what has been described as the “Bible” of US medal collecting and I have to agree that this is a monumental piece of work and I can only hope my blog will be anywhere as concise as this book. In saying this, Kerrigans “American War Medals & Decorations” along with Foster & Borts “US Military Medals” are also inspirational books that any collector would do well to acquire.

However living in the UK has its limitations with collecting US awards and we are reliant on this information and therefore “Gentlemen, I salute you all” on publishing your works which can only be described as influential!

• The Call of Duty, (R James Bender Publishing 1994) John E Sandberg & Roger James Bender.
• American War Medals & Decorations. (Viking Press, New York. Leo Cooper Ltd, 1st UK Edition 1973) Evans E Kerrigan
• US Military Medals 1939 to Present (Medals of America Press 1998, Fountain Inn, SC) Col. Frank Foster & Mr. Lawrence Borts.
• Military Decorations and Campaign Service Bars of the United States. (U.S. Insignia Company, New York 1943) Cromwell Gibbons.
• Uncommon Valor… Decorations, badges & service medals of the U.S. Navy & Marine Corp. (Eagle Print Shop, Hopkinsville, Kentucky 1980) David L Riley, Lt, USN.
• The National Geographic Magazine October 1943 “The Heraldry of Heroism” by Arthur E. Du Bois.
• Medal Yearbook 2014. Token Publishing Ltd. John W Mussell, FRGS and the Editorial team of medal news.
• Medals International Magazine January 1981, Vol 5 No 1.

Web based resource.

Viking Vanguard Slots

• Gentlemen’s Military Interest Club. http://www.gmic.co.uk
• Wikipedia, Awards and Decorations of the United States Armed Forces.
• The Institute of Heraldry.

Free Penney Viking Slots

I also regularly contribute articles to: