Dr. Wernher von Braun.

Father of modern rocketry Dr. Wernher von Braun in numerous articles and books in the early 1950s shared his vision for space. While technical director of the Army Ordnance Corps' guided missile group at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, he contributed to the March-April 1953 issue of Ordnance a four-page article, "Space Superiority," which among other topics, described in detail his plans for a three-stage rocket. He also laid out the military applications for his "artificial satellite, " which would later be called the Von Braun Wheel.

The payload of the rocket ship we are considering is about 36 tons--equivalent to that of two of the new super constellations. During any single trip to the orbit these 36 tons of payload can be discharged there and will remain circling when the plane-like third stage actuates its rocket motors and returns to the atmosphere to make a conventional airplane landing.

The two booster stages will have expelled retarding parachutes made of woven wire after their propellants have been exhausted and will have landed in the ocean where their empty tanks will have kept them afloat until salvaged. Thus any rocket ship can be reassembled, refueled, and relaunched an indeterminate number of times.

A modest number of such orbital rocket ships can haul into their orbit sufficient material and components to build a permanent station there--an artificial satellite.

Such an artificial satellite would preferably be built in the shape of an enormous wheel and would rotate slowly around its axle.

Within its rim this rotation would generate sufficient centrifugal force to simulate the effects of gravity, rendering life far more comfortable for the inmates than if they were exposed for extended periods to the weightlessness otherwise existing in the orbit.

The satellite would be designed and built in segments of nylon-reinforced plastic. One or more segments would be loaded into a rocket ship in the uninflated condition, much as rubber life rafts are loaded into airplanes. Men in pressure suits would assemble the segments in the orbit, and, when the wheel was complete, it would be inflated from air tanks like an automobile tire.

Of course the satellite would have its own air-conditioning system which would renew the oxygen consumed by the crew and fulfill the other requirements necessary to provide them with an ample supply of healthy, breathable air. For this purpose, there would be a periodic visit by a rocket ship to...