Qian Xuesen recruited from MIT, he joined Theodore von Kármán’s group at Caltech’s Graduate Aeronautical Laboratories, including the founding team of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Shortly after arriving at Caltech in 1936, Qian became fascinated with the rocketry ideas of Frank Malina, other students of von Kármán, and their associates, including Jack Parsons. Along with his fellow students, he was involved in rocket-related experiments at GALCIT where he received his PhD in 1939.
Three-quarters of a century ago, a small team of banished rocketeers lit a fuse that would eventually carry America to every planet in the solar system.
The "they" were Frank Malina, Jack Parsons, Ed Forman, A.O. Smith, William Bollay, Carlos Wood and William Rockefeller.
By 1938, the work had yielded solid results and several key technical papers, including a groundbreaking theoretical study by Malina and fellow student Hsue-shen Tsien of China on thermodynamic characteristics of a rocket motor.
Jack Parsons, a fervent student of occultist Aleister Crowley, would become the legendary leader of the California branch of the sex-magick sect Ordo Templi Orientis.
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