As the supply of V-2âs dwindled, a need for smaller rockets became apparent. The panel wanted rockets that were cheaper and simpler to assemble, test, and launch than the V-2âs. They also wanted the ability to move to places other than White Sands to do experiments. As a result, James VanAllen and the Applied Physics Laboratory at John Hopkins developed a new Aerobee Sounding Rocket. The NRL also developed the Viking, which was a very reliable and efficient rocket, but very expensive. Because of its cost, the Viking program probably would not have been very successful had it not been chosen as the starting point for the Vanguard IGY satellite launching vehicle. (The Navy was also in charge of Vanguard.)
As time passed, the Rocket Panel had a steadily increasing scope of activity. The name changed originally from ãthe panelä to the ãV-2 Upper Atmosphere Research Panel,ä then to ãUpper Atmosphere Rocket Research Panelä (UARRP) and finally, in April 1957, to the ãRocket and Satellite Research Panelä (RSRP), but its size remained small. This was, in part, because the panel limited the number of representatives from any one agency. While they wished the membership to remain small, they encouraged outside interest and participation in meetings. NACA (the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics) was often represented as an observer, as well as the U.S Weather Bureau and several universities. Although the panel was not official, for its first decade all the groups involved in sounding rocket research in the United States were represented on it. Some other groups involved with the UARRP were the Defense Departmentâs Research Advisory Board, the Committee on Guided Missiles, and the Committee on Geophysical Sciences.
Because the military funded most of the rocket research, every now and then the issue arose of security classification. According to Dow, space scientists felt that their information ought to be shared with the world at large since there were many practical benefits to the knowledge they obtained. Some important applications which could benefit from the availability of information include:
-missile, high altitude craft, and space vehicle
design
-reentry behavior of ballistic missiles
-high altitude navigation
-hazards to personnel and equipment in high atmosphere
and space
-weather forecasting
-climate study
-prediction of biological, chemical, or radiological
agent trajectories
-develop reliable point to point communications
-guidance, control, and delivery of missiles
-detection of enemy missiles and high altitude
craft
-countermeasures against enemy missile
-remote detection of nuclear explosions
