Intercontinental rocket

Post-WWII. After WWII most LP R D shifted from Germany to the USA and the USSR. Technical progress since 1945 in LP for rockets can be characterized by a host of minor improvements rather than major advances, and some spectacular applications of LP in rockets for military use and for space exploration, eg, in ICBM s (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles) and in USA USSR Moon, Mars Venus shots . Thus the major developments since WWII have been primarily in the application of existing, though improved, propulsion systems to such highly publicized rockets as Sputnik, Vanguard, Soyuz, Saturn, Vostok, Apollo, Explorer, etc... 

The special needs of the space program motivated the search for composite materials for other reasons also. For example, during tests of the first Atlas ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile), engineers were concerned that the rocket s metallic components would not survive the missile s reentry into the atmosphere they feared it would melt down because of the intense heat to which it was exposed. By the late 1950s, therefore, aerospace researchers had begun to look for satisfactory substitutes for metal alloys for such applications. With that research, the modern held of composite design was horn. One of the first composites tested consisted of pieces of glass embedded in melamine, purported to be the first composite material developed for aerospace applications. 

After the war Hercules returned to the production of commercial explosives as well as military propellants and continued to build on its cellulose and naval stores capabilities. In 1958 its explosives department created a chemical propulsion division to develop propellants for missiles and space vehicles. In 1959 it received contracts from the U.S. Air Force to develop new solid-fuel rocket motors and subsequently produced the motor for the third stage of the nation s first solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the Minuteman. Hercules played an even larger role in the development of the Navy s submarine-launched Polaris ICBM. With cellulose came new specialties, including synthetic resins and paper chemicals, as well as carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), an intermediate used in the production of foods, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics. From naval stores came other new specialty chemicals and an effective insecticide, toxaphene, and other agricultural chemicals.3... 

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