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Concept
Army Ballistic Missile Agency
Summary
The Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) was formed to develop the U.S. Army's first large ballistic missile. The agency was established at Redstone Arsenal on 1 February 1956, and commanded by Major General John B. Medaris with Wernher von Braun as technical director.
The Redstone missile was the first major project assigned to ABMA. The Redstone was a direct descendant of the V-2 missile developed by the von Braun team in Germany during World War II. After the Naval Research Laboratory's Project Vanguard was chosen by the DoD Committee on Special Capabilities, over the ABMA's proposal to use a modified Redstone ballistic missile as a satellite launch vehicle, ABMA was ordered to stop work on launchers for satellites and focus, instead, on military missiles.
Von Braun continued work on the design for what became the Jupiter-C rocket. This was a three-stage rocket, designed to test Jupiter missile components which, by coincidence, could be used to launch a satellite in the Juno I configuration (that is, with an added fourth stage). In September 1956, a Jupiter-C was launched with a dummy satellite on a suborbital flight. It was generally believed that the ABMA could have put a satellite into orbit at that time, had the U.S. government allowed ABMA to do so. A year later, the Soviets launched Sputnik 1. When the Vanguard rocket failed, a Redstone-based Jupiter-C with an added fourth stage and thus designated as Juno I rocket, launched America's first satellite, Explorer 1, on 1 February 1958 (GMT). Redstone was later used as a launch vehicle in Project Mercury. Redstone was also deployed by the U.S. Army as the PGM-11, the first missile to carry a nuclear warhead.
Studies began in 1956 for a replacement for the Redstone missile. Initially called the Redstone-S (S for solid), the name was changed to MGM-31 Pershing and a contract was awarded to The Martin Company, beginning a program that lasted 34 years.
In early 1958, NACA's "Stever Committee" included consultation from the ABMA's large booster program, headed by Wernher von Braun.
Official source
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