Editing Jack Parsons (section)

===GALCIT Rocket Research Group and the Kynette trial: 1934–1938===
[[File:Rocket-motor-test-browse.jpg|thumb|right|Parsons (dark vest) and [[GALCIT]] colleagues in the [[Arroyo Seco (Los Angeles County)|Arroyo Seco]], Halloween 1936. JPL marks this experiment as its foundation.{{sfn|Carter|2004|p=209: ''John Parsons in dark vest, Ed Forman bending over in white shirt; Frank Malina is probably the individual bending over in the light-colored vest''}}{{sfn|Carter|2004|p = 15}}]]

In hopes of gaining access to the state-of-the-art resources of Caltech for their rocketry research, Parsons and Forman attended a lecture on the work of Austrian rocket engineer [[Eugen Sänger]] and hypothetical above-[[Stratosphere|stratospheric]] aircraft by the institute's [[William Bollay]]—a PhD student specializing in [[rocket-powered aircraft]]—and approached him to express their interest in designing a liquid-fuel rocket motor.<ref name="CaltechConway">{{cite journal |journal=Engineering & Science |number=4 |last=Conway |first=Erik M. |title=From Rockets to Spacecraft: Making JPL a Place for Planetary Science |url=http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/4273/1/Spacecraft.pdf |publisher=California Institute of Technology |access-date=March 22, 2014 |year=2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407155653/http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/4273/1/Spacecraft.pdf |archive-date=April 7, 2023 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Malina>{{cite web |last=Terrall |first=Mary |title=Interview With Frank J. Malina |url=https://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/149/1/Malina.pdf |website=oralhistories.library.caltech.edu |publisher=California Institute of Technology |access-date=May 17, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140518000256/https://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/149/1/Malina.pdf |archive-date=May 18, 2014 |date=December 14, 1978 |url-status=live }}</ref> Bollay redirected them to another PhD student, [[Frank Malina]], a mathematician and mechanical engineer writing a thesis on rocket propulsion who shared their interests and soon befriended them.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 8–9|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 74–76}} Parsons, Forman, and Malina applied for funding from Caltech together; they did not mention that their ultimate objective was to develop rockets for space exploration, realizing that most of the scientific establishment then considered such ideas science fiction.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.leonardo.info/blog/2018/06/12/leonardos-strange-angel|title=Leonardo's Strange Angel: Behind the Scenes with Jack Parsons and Frank Malina|date=June 11, 2018|work=Leonardo/ISAST|access-date=June 14, 2018|language=en}}</ref> Caltech's [[Clark Blanchard Millikan]] immediately rebuffed them, but Malina's doctoral advisor [[Theodore von Kármán]] saw more promise in their proposal and agreed to allow them to operate under the auspices of the university's [[Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory]] (GALCIT).<ref name=Pendle>{{cite web|last1=Pendle|first1=George|title=The Last of the Magicians|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-last-of-the-magicians/|website=[[Vice (magazine)|Vice]]|access-date=January 5, 2015|date=January 2, 2015}}</ref> Naming themselves the GALCIT Rocket Research Group, they gained access to Caltech's specialist equipment, though the economics of the Great Depression left von Kármán unable to finance them.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 10|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 77–83}}

The trio focused their distinct skills on collaborative rocket development; Parsons was the chemist, Forman the machinist, and Malina the technical theoretician. Malina wrote in 1968 that the self-educated Parsons "lacked the discipline of a formal higher education, [but] had an uninhibited and fruitful imagination."<ref name=Malina2>{{cite web|last=Malina|first=Frank J.|title=The Rocket Pioneers|date=November 1968|url=http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/601/1/ES50.2.1986.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140519154730/http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/601/1/ES50.2.1986.pdf |archive-date=May 19, 2014 |url-status=live|website=calteches.library.caltech.edu|pages=8–13|publisher=California Institute of Technology}}</ref> Parsons and Forman who, as described by [[Geoffrey A. Landis]], "were eager to try whatever idea happened to spring to mind", contrasted with Malina, who insisted on scientific discipline as informed by von Kármán. Landis writes that their creativity "kept Malina focused toward building actual rocket engines, not just solving equations on paper".<ref>{{cite web|last=Landis|first=Geoffrey|title=The Three Rocketeers
|url=http://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/the-three-rocketeers|website=americanscientist.org|publisher=[[Sigma Xi]]|year=2005|access-date=March 22, 2014}}</ref> Sharing [[socialism|socialist]] values, they operated on an [[egalitarianism|egalitarian]] basis; Malina taught the others about scientific procedure and they taught him about the practical elements of rocketry. They often socialized, smoking [[marijuana]] and drinking, while Malina and Parsons set about writing a semiautobiographical science fiction screenplay they planned to pitch to Hollywood with strong [[anti-capitalism|anti-capitalist]] and [[pacifism|pacifist]] themes.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 22–24|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 90–93, 118–120}}

[[File:P1-RocketBoys.jpg|thumb|left|[[GALCIT]] Group members in the [[Arroyo Seco (Los Angeles County)|Arroyo Seco]], November 1936. Left foreground to right: [[Rudolph Schott]], Amo Smith, [[Frank Malina]], [[Ed Forman]], and Jack Parsons.]]

Parsons met [[Helen Northrup]] at a local church dance and proposed marriage in July 1934. She accepted and they were married in April 1935 at the Little Church of the Flowers in [[Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)|Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale]], before undertaking a brief honeymoon in San Diego.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 7|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 84–89}} They moved into a house on South Terrace Drive, Pasadena, while Parsons got a job at the explosives manufacturer Halifax Powder Company's facility in [[Saugus, California|Saugus]]. Much to Helen's dismay, Parsons spent most of his wages funding the GALCIT Rocket Research Group.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 7|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2p = 89}} For extra money, he manufactured nitroglycerin in their home, constructing a laboratory on their front porch. At one point, he pawned Helen's engagement ring, and he often asked her family for loans.{{sfn|Pendle|2005|pp = 105–106}}

Malina recounted that "Parsons and Forman were not too pleased with an austere program that did not include at least the launching of model rockets",<ref name="Malina2"/> but the Group reached the consensus of developing a working static rocket motor before embarking on more complex research. They contacted [[Liquid-propellant rocket|liquid-fuel rocket]] pioneer Robert H. Goddard and he invited Malina to his facility in [[Roswell, New Mexico]], but he was not interested in cooperating—reticent about sharing his research and having been subjected to widespread derision for his work in rocketry.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 12|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 96–98}} They were instead joined by Caltech graduate students [[Apollo M. O. Smith|Apollo M. O. "Amo" Smith]], [[Carlos C. Wood]], [[Mark Muir Mills]], [[Fred S. Miller]], [[William C. Rockefeller]], and [[Rudolph Schott]]; Schott's pickup truck transported their equipment.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 12|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2p = 99}} Their first liquid-fuel motor test took place near the [[Devil's Gate Dam]] in the Arroyo Seco on Halloween 1936.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 72|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 196–199}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=1217|title=The Spark of a New Era|website=jpl.nasa.gov|publisher=NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory|date=October 25, 2006|access-date=February 21, 2014|archive-date=June 24, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170624214139/https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=1217|url-status=dead}}</ref> Parsons's biographer John Carter described the layout of the contraption as showing

{{blockquote|text=oxygen flowing from one side, with methyl alcohol (the fuel) and nitrogen flowing from the other side. Water cooled the rocket during the burn. Thrust pulled down a spring which measured force. The deflection of the spring measured the force applied to it. A small diamond tip on the apparatus scratched a glass plate to mark the furthest point of deflection. The rocket and mount were protected by sandbags, with the tanks (and the experimenters) well away from it.{{sfn|Carter|2004|p = 16}}}}

Three attempts to fire the rocket failed; on the fourth the oxygen line accidentally ignited and perilously billowed fire at the Group, but they viewed this experience as formative.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 15–16|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 98–103}} They continued their experiments throughout the last quarter of 1936; after the final test was successfully completed in January 1937 von Kármán agreed that they could perform future experiments at an exclusive rocket testing facility on campus.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 17|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2p = 103}}<ref>{{cite web|title=Early History > First Rocket Test|url=http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/jplhistory/early/|access-date=April 5, 2014|website=jpl.nasa.gov|publisher=NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory|archive-date=October 26, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111026135745/http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/jplhistory/early/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=GALCIT History (1921–1940)|url=http://www.galcit.caltech.edu/about/history#1921|publisher=California Institute of Technology|access-date=May 7, 2014}}</ref>

[[File:JackParsons3.jpg|thumb|right|Parsons in 1938, holding the replica [[car bomb]] used in the murder trial of police officer Captain [[Earl Kynette]] ]]
In April 1937, Caltech mathematician [[Qian Xuesen]] joined the Group. Several months later, Weld Arnold, a Caltech laboratory assistant who worked as the Group's official photographer, also joined. The main reason for Arnold's appointment to this position was his provision of a donation to the Group on behalf of an anonymous benefactor.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 17|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 106–107}} They became well known on campus as the "Suicide Squad" for the dangerous nature of some of their experiments and attracted attention from the local press.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 17–18|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 108–111}} Parsons himself gained further media publicity when he appeared as an expert explosives witness in the trial of Captain [[Earl Kynette]], the head of police intelligence in Los Angeles who was accused of conspiring to set a [[car bomb]] in the attempted murder of private investigator Harry Raymond, a former LAPD detective who was fired after whistleblowing against police corruption. When Kynette was convicted largely on Parsons' testimony, which included his forensic reconstruction of the car bomb and its explosion, his identity as an expert scientist in the public eye was established despite his lack of a university education.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 26–28|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 114–116}}<ref name=Harnisch>{{cite web|last=Harnisch|first=Larry|title=Jack Parsons, RIP|url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedailymirror/2008/05/jack-parsons-ri.html|website=latimesblogs.latimes.com|publisher=[[Tribune Publishing]]|access-date=March 29, 2014|date=May 7, 2008}}</ref> While working at Caltech, Parsons was admitted to evening courses in chemistry at the [[University of Southern California]] (USC), but distracted by his GALCIT workload he attended sporadically and received unexceptional grades.{{sfnm|1a1 = Pendle|1y = 2005|1pp = 112, 314}}

By early 1938, the Group had made their static rocket motor, which originally burned for three seconds, run for over a minute.{{sfnm|1a1 = Westwick|1y = 2007|1p = 1}}<ref name="Rasmussen">{{cite news|last=Rasmussen|first=Cecilia|title=Life as Satanist Propelled Rocketeer|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-mar-19-me-10501-story.html|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=March 19, 2000|access-date=March 24, 2014}}</ref> In May that year, Parsons was invited by [[Forrest J Ackerman]] to lecture on his rocketry work at Chapter Number 4 of the [[Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society|Los Angeles Science Fiction League]] (LASFL). Although he never joined the society, he occasionally attended their talks, on one occasion conversing with a teenage [[Ray Bradbury]].{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 57–60|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 126–127}} Another scientist to become involved in the GALCIT project was [[Sidney Weinbaum]], a Jewish refugee from Europe who was a vocal Marxist; he led Parsons, Malina, and Qian in their creation of a largely secretive [[communism|communist]] discussion group at Caltech, which became known as Professional Unit 122 of the Pasadena Communist Party. Although Parsons subscribed to the ''[[People's Daily World]]'' and joined the [[American Civil Liberties Union]] (ACLU), he refused to join the [[Communist Party USA|American Communist Party]], causing a break in his and Weinbaum's friendship.{{sfnm|1a1 = Pendle|1y = 2005|1pp = 120–123}} This, coupled with the need to focus on paid employment, led to the disintegration of much of the Rocket Research Group, leaving only its three founding members by late 1938.{{sfnm|1a1 = Pendle|1y = 2005|1p = 130}}