Recently learned about how Qian Xuesen, the father of the Chinese space and nuke programs was in fact a pioneer in the US space program too before he was caught up and deported in the red scare era in 1955. Major own goal.
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"A former US Secretary of the Navy, Dan Kimball - later head of the rocket propulsion company, Aerojet - once said it was "the stupidest thing this country ever did"
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Though Frank Malina Jack Parsons and others from Caltech were better known in the "suicide squad" that gave rise to both JPL and Rocketdyne, looks like Xuesen was a critical member of the gang.
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I need to read a good history of this thing. It's like the Fairchild traitorous 8 story for rocketry. With more than its fair share of crazy (the Parsons-L-Ron-Hubbard nexus is well known)
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