At that time they were having launches, it seemed like a couple a week. There was a tremendous amount of launch activity. You could go out and you could see a launch. When we first moved out we weren’t at the Cape. We were at Patrick. So you would go out on some building roof and see a launch. So the first few times that was very exciting…
In this excerpt (3:58) from an oral history interview on October 31, 2011, Dr. Patz remembers the excitement of the space program and watching launches from the rooftops of Patrick Air Force Base. Dr. Benjamin Patz came to Orlando in the early 1960s to work at Cape Canaveral in the GENESYS program. He says the view from the rooftop wasn’t much different from seeing a launch from the seating for the congressmen and other VIPS. They were all nice launches.
Dr. Benjamin Patz’s scientific contributions to our area include working in the GENESYS Program at Cape Canaveral, Lockheed Martin, teaching at the Naval Training Equipment Center, Rollins College, and the University of Central Florida. His students from the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science at UCF recall Professor Patz as a patient teacher who spent diligent time with everyone, undergraduate or graduate. In the GENESYS Program at the Cape his students were people working at Martin Marietta and NASA. Dr. Patz says, “They had interesting problems they would discuss with you… It was a good chance to go over control systems, electromagnetic fields, the boundary value problems.”
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Dr. Benjamin Patz
Dr. Benjamin W. Patz, Martin Marietta Company
First Launch From Cape CanaveralAt that time they were having launches, it seemed like a couple a week. There was a tremendous amount of launch activity. You could go out and you could see a launch. When we first moved out we weren't at the Cape. We were at Patrick. So you would go out on some building roof and see a launch. So the first few times that was very exciting...
In this excerpt (below) from an oral history interview on October 31, 2011, Dr. Patz remembers the excitement of the space program and watching launches from the rooftops of Patrick Air Force Base. Dr. Benjamin Patz came to Orlando in the early 1960s to work at Cape Canaveral in the GENESYS program. He says the view from the rooftop wasn't much different from seeing a launch from the seating for the congressmen and other VIPS. They were all nice launches.
Dr. Benjamin Patz's scientific contributions to our area include working in the GENESYS Program at Cape Canaveral, Lockheed Martin, teaching at the Naval Training Equipment Center, Rollins College, and the University of Central Florida. His students from the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science at UCF recall Professor Patz as a patient teacher who spent diligent time with everyone, undergraduate or graduate. In the GENESYS Program at the Cape his students were people working at Martin Marietta and NASA. Dr. Patz says, "They had interesting problems they would discuss with you... It was a good chance to go over control systems, electromagnetic fields, the boundary value problems."
Physicist Benedetti Witnessed First Missile Shot at Cape Canaveral
Benedetti describes the clear warm day on July 24, 1950 when he and his colleagues from the Naval Research Lab were invited to the Cape to watch the first missile shot from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Sonar physicist Vincent Benedetti recalls scientists Wernher Von Braun and Willy Ley were there, about 15 people from the U.S. Naval Research Lab in Orlando were present, and around 50 people total were at the event. He outlines the historical competition of the United States against Russia after WWII to get top rocket scientists like Werher Von Braun, chief rocket scientist from Germany. The launching of the WAC Corporal in the nose of a V-2 rocket was the first launch from the Cape Canaveral launching complex. Orlando builder Jerry Kinsley of Kinsley Builders built the launching pads, the first building at Cape Canaveral, the underground block house, and the hangars.
Listen to Orlando sonar physicist Vincent Benedetti's firsthand account of this historic event in the American race to space.