From New Jersey to the moon, how the space race started in New Jersey

Shortly following World War II, there was a covert panic to develop radar that would be instrumental in detecting Russian weapons aimed at the United States and eventually be significant in the Americans' race with the Soviets to the moon.

Most scientists and scholars believe that the race to the moon began in the mid-1950s.

An integral part of that race happened in New Jersey on Thursday, January 10, 1945, at Camp Evans.

Camp Evans was located within the confines of Fort Monmouth, covering the towns of Eatontown, Little Silver, and Oceanport, New Jersey.

Fort Monmouth is located about five miles from the ocean. We will revisit that important date in a minute.

More important than the race to the moon was the arms race between the Soviets and Americans.

Both countries had German scientists and technicians captured during World War II, who were collaborating closely with scientists from their own country.

Camp Evans had been a receiving station for the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company. The equipment was still in decent shape after the war and contained equipment captured from the Japanese and German armies.

During World War II, Camp Evans Signal Laboratory’s main purpose was to improve US radar capabilities.

As a response to the growing ballistics from the Germans and Russians in World War II, civilians and military personnel at Camp Evans created Project Diana, named for Diana, the Greek goddess of the moon.

As a direct concern for the Nazi Germans V2 rocket in 1944 that became the first to be launched in outer space and with the successful use of atomic weapons against Japan, the Unites States military became concerned that these could be viable threats against the United States.

The Pentagon ordered Camp Evans staff to investigate the possibility and probability of like weapons launched against the U. S. and what staff needed to do to detect them.

Time was crucial, so the staff used the available radar equipment that was already onsite and modified it. Radar was a necessity.

They mounted the equipment on one of the 100-foot towers at Fort Monmouth, and on that Thursday, January 10, 1945, at 11:58am, they pointed the radar towards the moon and sent radio waves into the stratosphere.

Within 2.5 seconds, the wave bounced off the moon and came back to New Jersey. A huge accomplishment, and they achieved their success swiftly and thoroughly.

This “Moonbounce” eventually allowed the United States to send radar to monitor the Russians and Chinese, allowing the Americans to see by radar any incoming targeted weapons and destroy them.

Project Diana paved the way for the development of radio communications, satellites, and manned space flights that were now able to communicate in space.

Project Diana was a huge development in space exploration and communication and it all started here in New Jersey.

Special thanks to my friend Tom Jones for sending me Colin Makamson’s article, which he contributed to at The National World War II Museum in New Orleans.

Additional information was provided by the Department of Defense.