I've always loved local history, and I've lately fallen in love with rocketry. So my eyes widened when I read this in an old NY Times obit for rocketry pioneer James Van Allen:
"On April 5, 1950, one of the most ambitious scientific efforts of all time, the International Geophysical Year, was born in his living room in Silver Spring, Md."
Wait, I thought, I live in Silver Spring! (It's a suburb north of Washington DC.) But I never knew James Van Allen did stuff here. So I dug deeper. Read about how in the 1940s Van Allen worked for the JHU's Applied Research Lab in Silver Spring. Wait, I thought, what Applied Research Lab? I did some more digging, found an article with its old address, and Googled it:
Turns out the old APL facilities, the lab where Dr. Van Allen developed the Aerobee and his "Rockoons," is now the PJ's coffee shop about three blocks from my house!
And as for that living room in 1950... I also read that Van Allen's living room was where he and several other geophysicists came up with the idea for the IGY - and that the IGY is what indirectly kicked off the Space Race, as the USSR and USA rushed to put a satellite in orbit for the 1957-58 festivities. Much more important than what goes on in my living room.
Well, after several weeks of searching, I can report that today I finally found the address of Van Allen's Silver Spring house - the only mention I found was from Van Allen, himself, in one interview he did late in life. I Googled the address...and...yes, it's still standing on a quiet residential street, maybe a mile and a half from where I live!
(I'm not posting pics out of respect for the current owner's privacy; anyway, it's just your normal, perfectly nice, post-war house.)
So there's the bit of rocketry history in my own back yard. And come spring, I'll be honoring my famous neighbor by getting my own rockets stuck in trees just a 20 minute drive from his house.
"On April 5, 1950, one of the most ambitious scientific efforts of all time, the International Geophysical Year, was born in his living room in Silver Spring, Md."
Wait, I thought, I live in Silver Spring! (It's a suburb north of Washington DC.) But I never knew James Van Allen did stuff here. So I dug deeper. Read about how in the 1940s Van Allen worked for the JHU's Applied Research Lab in Silver Spring. Wait, I thought, what Applied Research Lab? I did some more digging, found an article with its old address, and Googled it:
Turns out the old APL facilities, the lab where Dr. Van Allen developed the Aerobee and his "Rockoons," is now the PJ's coffee shop about three blocks from my house!
And as for that living room in 1950... I also read that Van Allen's living room was where he and several other geophysicists came up with the idea for the IGY - and that the IGY is what indirectly kicked off the Space Race, as the USSR and USA rushed to put a satellite in orbit for the 1957-58 festivities. Much more important than what goes on in my living room.
Well, after several weeks of searching, I can report that today I finally found the address of Van Allen's Silver Spring house - the only mention I found was from Van Allen, himself, in one interview he did late in life. I Googled the address...and...yes, it's still standing on a quiet residential street, maybe a mile and a half from where I live!
(I'm not posting pics out of respect for the current owner's privacy; anyway, it's just your normal, perfectly nice, post-war house.)
So there's the bit of rocketry history in my own back yard. And come spring, I'll be honoring my famous neighbor by getting my own rockets stuck in trees just a 20 minute drive from his house.
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