Spacecraft Technology: The Early Years (review)

Historians have devoted an enormous amount of attention to space exploration, an endeavor now in its fiftieth year. Much of the literature reveals a fetish with the artifact (rockets, spaceships, lunar modules) and a concomitant interest in internal questions of design, development, and operations. Because most of the scholarship has been circumscribed by questions relevant to particular programs (such as Apollo or the Space Shuttle) rather than across-the-board technologies, we lack a substantive understanding of the overall technology of early space exploration. In this book, Mark Williamson avoids the usual project-centered perspective and delves into the general hardware that made space exploration possible. It is a book "about the early development of space technology, between the late 1950s and the early 1970s," a period which the author describes as "one of the most important periods of technological development mankind has ever known" (p. xi). Based on secondary sources, it is not intended for "professional space historians" but rather scientists, engineers, and the general reader.

After a brief and cursory treatment of the development of rockets in the pre-Sputnik era, Williamson turns to the objects that rockets place in space, satellites. In a lucid and enjoyable style that favors economy over rambling explanations, he expertly describes the basic technological requirements of carrying out useful tasks in space. We learn that the primary systems still used on most modern satellites were introduced and adopted in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Although the majority of elementary electronic components necessary for satellites were already available at the time, they were not suitable for work in space. Satellite designers quickly met the challenge of producing components capable of enduring the inhospitable conditions peculiar to spaceflight: jarring vibrations during launch, wild fluctuations in temperature, the extreme vacuum, microgravity, and, of course, dangerous radiation.

Almost all spacecraft shared a mix of common systems, including a power source, equipment to transmit, receive, and/or store data, and a means of maintaining a particular orientation. Through an iterative process, engineers adopted satellite designs divided into two parts, the interchangeable "platform," which contained the basic systems, and the mission-specific "payload" which included unique scientific instruments. This kind of "modular" satellite platform has become a hallmark of satellite design across national and corporate cultures.

Williamson's description of the progressive evolution of communications satellites is particularly informative. Beginning with NASA's rudimentary Echo-1 satellite—a large spherical Mylar balloon for passive communications—he identifies the key technologies that led up to the modern geostationary communications satellite. Private industry, firms such as AT&T and Hughes, played a critical role in adopting innovations. These included the traveling wave tube amplifier (TWTA), common by the late 1960s, which was used for high-power generation and signal amplification. Williamson argues that "the development of the TWTA was as important to the development of space technology as any other device, simply because of the large distances involved in space communications" (p. 172).

The final quarter of the book focuses on NASA's gargantuan Apollo program. Here Williamson describes the innovative technologies required to put a human on the Moon. Focused as it is on the development of various Apollo spacecraft (orbiter, lander, rover), this section treads over ground that should be familiar to most readers. Even though Williamson may indeed be correct in arguing that "Apollo . . . made significant contributions to the development of electronics, computer systems, materials and many other engineering disciplines" (p. 291), it is hard to judge based on the account here.

Williamson's narrative, while strong in describing particular technologies, is marred by two glaring omissions. First, aside from a couple of cursory allusions, he has little to say about the development of military and intelligence satellite technologies. One might argue that in the early years of the space age, much of the technology of satellite design (as with rockets) was driven by military imperatives. All "civilian" satellite applications had simultaneous military use. The overwhelming bulk of satellites launched by both the superpowers...