Scope and Contents

This collection consists of four cubic feet of material documenting the aerospace career of Milton Rosen, especially his work on the Viking Rocket and Vanguard Projects. The collection includes the following types of material: a Viking scrapbook; publications written by Rosen, including articles, papers, journals, and books; Viking photographs; Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Viking reports; NRL reports on V-2 and development of remote control for the JB-2 Flying Bomb; Rosen's professional correspondence; Viking design summary; 1955 Vanguard proposal; and several 1961 papers on planning for the manned lunar landing.

Biographical / Historical

Milton Rosen (b. 1915) was a key figure in the development of the Viking Rocket and Vanguard programs. Rosen earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania in 1937. He joined the staff of the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in 1940 and he worked on guidance systems for missiles during World War II. From 1947 until 1955, Rosen was in charge of Viking Rocket development, and he then became the technical director of Project Vanguard. Rosen joined NASA in 1958 as Director of Launch Vehicles and Propulsion in the Office of Manned Space Flight. In 1963, he became Senior Scientist in NASA's Office of the Deputy Associate Administrator for Defense Affairs and was later appointed Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Science (Engineering). Rosen retired from NASA in 1974 to become Executive Secretary of the National Academy of Science's Space Science Board. Rosen wrote numerous articles on rockets and space flight, and is the author of The Viking Rocket Story, published in 1954. He is a fellow and former director of the American Rocket Society.