Redstone è la denominazione del primo missile balistico americano a medio raggio, basato fondamentalmente sulla tecnologia del razzo di costruzione tedesca del tipo A4 (V2). Lo sviluppo di questo tipo di missile venne principalmente eseguito presso il Redstone Arsenal di Huntsville in Alabama con la stretta collaborazione di tecnici tedeschi diretti da Walter Dornberger e Wernher von Braun, portati dagli statunitensi negli USA dopo la fine della II guerra mondiale.
Il missile era in grado di trasportare una bomba od un congegno esplosivo nucleare di circa 3.000 kg (corrispondente ad una forza esplosiva di 3750 kT) ad una distanza massima di 1100 km. Questi missili vennero posizionati in Germania ed in Turchia (da dove furono ritirati dopo la crisi di Cuba). Il primo lancio del missile venne eseguito il 20 agosto 1953. Fino al suo ultimo lancio, eseguito il 30 novembre 1965, vennero eseguiti un totale di 56 lanci di cui 28 non riuscirono.
A causa della tecnologia relativamente ben testata del missile, entro un breve arco di tempo dallo shock dello Sputnik i tecnici americani furono in grado di costruire un razzo vettore in grado di portare diversi satelliti artificiali in orbita intorno alla Terra. Dal Redstone derivarono i razzi vettori utilizzati per il lancio del primo satellite artificiale americano Explorer 1 e per il primo volo suborbitale di capsule spaziali nell'ambito del programma Mercury.
Varianti
La variante Redstone per test di rientro in atmosfera di missili intercontinentali venne denominata Jupiter-C. Era composta dal razzo Redstone assemblato con due ulteriori stadi (derivati dal razzo Sergeant) alimentati da combustibile solido e montati in cima al razzo Redstone. Tra il 1956 ed il 1957 vennero lanciati tre di questi razzi.
La variante Redstone per il lancio del primo satellite artificiale americano in orbita intorno alla Terra venne denominata Juno I. Era composta dal razzo Redstone assemblato con tre ulteriori stadi alimentati da combustibile solido, montati in cima al razzo Redstone. Nel 1958 vennero lanciati sei di questi razzi di cui non riuscirono tre lanci.
Il razzo vettore Redstone Mercury era dotato solamente di uno stadio di propulsione; fu usato durante il programma Mercury per il lancio in volo suborbitale delle prime due capsule con equipaggio umano.
Inoltre esisté pure la Redstone Sparta. Venne utilizzata nel 1966 per pochi voli di collaudo suborbitali lanciati da Woomera e per il lancio del primo satellite artificiale australiano in orbita intorno alla Terra: il Wresat.
ENGLISH
The PGM-11 Redstone was the first large American ballistic missile. A short-range ballistic missile (SRBM), it was in active service with the United States Army in West Germany from June 1958 to June 1964 as part of NATO's Cold War defense of Western Europe. It was the first US missile to carry a live nuclear warhead, in the 1958 Pacific Ocean weapons test, Hardtack Teak. Chief Engineer Wernher von Braun personally witnessed this historic launch and detonation.
Redstone was a direct descendant of the German V-2 rocket, developed by a team of predominantly German rocket engineers brought to the United States after World War II as part of Operation Paperclip. The design used an upgraded engine from Rocketdyne that allowed the missile to carry the W39 warhead which weighed 6,900 pounds (3,100 kg) with its reentry vehicle to a range of about 175 miles (282 km). Redstone's prime contractor was the Chrysler Corporation.
A major effort to improve Redstone's reliability produced one of the most reliable rockets of the era. Dubbed "the Army's Workhorse", it spawned an entire rocket family which had an excellent launch record and holds a number of firsts in the US space program, notably launching the first US astronaut. It was retired by the Army in 1964 and replaced by the solid-fueled MGM-31 Pershing. Surplus missiles were widely used for test missions and space launches, including the first US man in space, and in 1967 the launch of Australia's first satellite.
History
A product of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama under the leadership of Wernher von Braun, Redstone was designed as a surface-to-surface missile for the U.S. Army. It was named for the arsenal on 8 April 1952, which traced its name to the region's red rocks and soil. Chrysler was awarded the prime production contract and began missile and support equipment production in 1952 at the newly renamed Michigan Ordnance Missile Plant in Warren, Michigan. The navy-owned facility was previously known as the Naval Industrial Reserve Aircraft Plant used for jet engine production. Following the cancellation of a planned jet engine program, the facility was made available to the Chrysler Corporation for missile production. Rocketdyne Division of North American Aviation Company provided the rocket engines; Ford Instrument Company, division of Sperry Rand Corporation, produced the guidance and control systems; and Reynolds Metals Company fabricated fuselage assemblies as subcontractors to Chrysler. The first Redstone lifted off from LC-4A at Cape Canaveral on 20 August 1953. It flew for one minute and 20 seconds before suffering an engine failure and falling into the sea. Following this partial success, the second test was conducted on 27 January 1954, this time without a hitch as the missile flew 55 miles. After these first two prototypes were flown, an improved engine was introduced to reduce problems with LOX turbopump cavitation.
The third Redstone flight on 5 May was a total loss as the engine cut off one second after launch, causing the rocket to fall back on the pad and explode. After this incident, Major General Holger Toftoy pressured Wernher von Braun for the cause of the failure. The latter replied that he had no idea, but they would review telemetry and other data to find out. Toftoy persisted, asking "Wernher, why did the rocket explode?" An exasperated von Braun said "It exploded because the damn sonofabitch blew up!"
Von Braun pressured the ABMA team to improve reliability and workmanship standards, allegedly remarking that "Missile reliability will require that the target area is more dangerous than the launch area." Subsequent test flights went better and the Army declared Redstone operational in mid-1955. Testing was moved from LC-4 to the bigger LC-5 and LC-6.
In 1955, the Jupiter-C rocket (not to be confused with the later, unrelated Jupiter IRBM) was developed as an enhanced Redstone for atmospheric and reentry vehicle tests. It had elongated propellant tanks for increased burn time and a new engine that burned a fuel mixture known as hydyne and under the name of the Jupiter C/Juno 1 was used for the first successful US space launch of the Explorer 1 satellite in 1958.
The Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle was a derivation of the Redstone with a fuel tank increased in length by 6 feet (1.8 m) and was used on 5 May 1961 to launch Alan Shepard on his sub-orbital flight to become the second person and first American in space.
It retained the Jupiter C's longer propellant tanks, but went back to using ethyl alcohol/water for propellant instead of hydyne.
The Redstone program proved to be a bone of contention between the Army and Air Force due to their different ideas of nuclear warfare. The Army favored using small warheads on mobile missiles as tactical battlefield weapons while the Air Force, which was responsible for the ICBM program, wanted large cross-continental missiles that could strike Soviet targets and rapidly cripple the USSR's infrastructure and ability to wage war.
With the arrival of newer solid-fueled missiles that could be stored and not require fueling before launch, Redstone was rendered obsolete and production ended in 1961. The 40th Artillery Group was deactivated in February 1964 and 46th Artillery Group was deactivated in June 1964, as Redstone missiles were replaced by the Pershing missile in the U.S. Army arsenal. All Redstone missiles and equipment deployed to Europe were returned to the United States by the third quarter of 1964. In October 1964, the Redstone missile was ceremonially retired from active service at Redstone Arsenal.
From 1966 to 1967, a series of surplus modified Redstones called Spartas were launched from Woomera, South Australia as part of a joint U.S.–United Kingdom–Australian research program aimed at understanding re-entry phenomena. These Redstones had two solid fuel upper stages added. The U.S. donated a spare Sparta for Australia's first satellite launch, WRESAT, in November 1967.
Description
Redstone was capable of flights from 57.5 miles (92.5 km) to 201 miles (323 km). It consisted of a thrust unit for powered flight and a missile body for overall missile control and payload delivery on target. During powered flight, Redstone burned a fuel mixture of 25 percent water–75 percent ethyl alcohol with liquid oxygen (LOX) used as the oxidizer. Later Redstones used Hydyne, 60% unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH) and 40% diethylenetriamine (DETA), as the fuel. The missile body consisted of an aft unit containing the instrument compartment, and the warhead unit containing the payload compartment and the radar altimeter fuze. The missile body was separated from the thrust unit 20–30 seconds after the termination of powered flight, as determined by the preset range to target. The body continued on a controlled ballistic trajectory to the target impact point. The thrust unit continued on its own uncontrolled ballistic trajectory, impacting short of the designated target.
The nuclear-armed Redstone carried the W39, either a MK 39Y1 Mod 1 or MK 39Y2 Mod 1, warhead with a yield of 3.8 megatons.
Operators
United States
United States Army
- 40th Field Artillery Group 1958–1961 – West Germany1st Battalion, 333rd Artillery Regiment
- 46th Field Artillery Group 1959–1961 – West Germany
- 2nd Battalion, 333rd Artillery Regiment
- 209th Field Artillery Group – Fort Sill, Oklahoma
- 4th Bn, 333rd Artillery Regiment
Surviving Examples
Displayed as PGM-11:
- National Air and Space Museum at the Udvar-Hazy Center, Washington, DC
- Warren, New Hampshire
- US Space and Rocket Center, Huntsville, Alabama
- Battleship Memorial Park, Mobile, Alabama
- Air Force Space and Missile Museum, Cape Canaveral, Florida
- Kansas Cosmosphere, Hutchinson, Kansas (payload and aft unit only)
- National Museum of Nuclear Science and History, Albuquerque, New Mexico
- White Sands Missile Range Museum, White Sands, New Mexico
- Evergreen Aviation Museum, McMinnville, Oregon
- Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
- US Army Field Artillery Museum, Fort Sill, Oklahoma
Displayed as Jupiter-C
- US Space and Rocket Center, Huntsville, Alabama
- Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, Merritt Island, Florida
- Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
- Petal, Mississippi
- Displayed as a Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle
- Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, Merritt Island, Florida
- One in the rocket garden, one near the badging office, and one at Launch Complex 5
- Air Zoo, Kalamazoo, Michigan (in storage)
- Kansas Cosmosphere, Hutchinson, Kansas
- Museum of Life + Science, Durham, North Carolina
- Parque de las Ciencias Luis A. Ferré at Bayamón, Puerto Rico
- Space Center Houston, Houston, Texas
- Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicles
- US Space and Rocket Center, Huntsville, Alabama
- United States Astronaut Hall of Fame, Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.
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