In the late 1930s the American Rockety Society, based in New York City, built this second, larger test stand to experiment with liquid-fuel rocket motors. After Pearl Harbor, four Society members formed the first liquid-propellant rocket engine company in the U.S., Reaction Motors, in order to build rocket-assisted-take-off devices for airplanes. ARS Test Stand #2 became the company's first piece of equipment for this work.
The Ask An Expert lecture series at the National Mall building is presented every Wednesday at noon. A Museum staff member talks to the public about the history, collection, or personalities related to a specific artifact or exhibition in the Museum.
The industrial revolution and advances in science made age-old fantasies of flight into reality. Inspired by the achievement of flight in the atmosphere around 1900, dreamers of spaceflight drew on the physics of Isaac Newton and the science fiction of Jules Verne to imagine how it might be feasible to fly in space.
Rocket pioneers worked alone at first, theorizing, tinkering, and encouraging others in their quest. Then they formed small space societies in the 1920s and 1930s. By the start of World War II, governments and corporations were developing the rocket as a weapon. Among these groups were individuals who dreamed that their work would lead to exploration beyond Earth.