Launch Countdown Tradition Began with a Silent Movie

By Bob Granath

5, 4, 3, 2, 1, zero, lifttoff!

That familiar count backwards to zero leading to the launch of a rocket did not originate with missiles fired from Cape Canaveral. It began with an Austrian filmmaker recruiting a German spaceflight pioneer to recommend ways to add realism to a 1929 science-fiction movie about a fictitious trip to the Moon. A countdown was inserted to increase drama. German rocket enthusiasts soon began including countdowns to their rocket tests, later continuing in their work in the United States. Four decades later, that group launched the historic first actual lunar flight by humans – an event preceded by a countdown not unlike that in the early fantasy.

Countdowns have become a familiar part of modern life. Children do it in expectation of a special event. On Dec. 31 each year, hundreds of thousands gather in New York City’s Times Square to count down to the start of the New Year. Since the earliest days of America’s efforts to explore space, counting down for a rocket launch has become a familiar part of the nation’s culture.

In America’s space exploration efforts, a countdown is a carefully designed, time-sensitive sequence of procedures moving backward through all the events that must happen before a rocket’s scheduled launch can take place. Depending on the type of rocket used, countdowns in recent history start from 72 to 96 hours before time for the launch. For the most part, the rockets take off from the NASA’s Kennedy Space Center or Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida or Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

In his 1968 book, The Orbit of Explorer-1, German-American historian and science writer, Willy Ley, described the tension inside the launch control blockhouse a few hundred yards from the launch pad.

“People involved in countdowns always say that the last 20 minutes are the worst,” he said. “By that time everything that needs doing has been done, and therefore everybody has 20 minutes in which to think of what may not have been done or else what could possibly go wrong.”

Countdowns Are Not Universal

Counting down from 10 to zero is not universal. On July 15, 1975, the Soviet Union, for the first time, broadcast the liftoff of one of their rockets. Two cosmonauts were preparing to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to rendezvous with three Americans as part of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. The voice of a translator in the Russian control center reported the final stage of the count.

“Thirty seconds to the launch,” he said. “The launch command has been given. The onboard telemetry registry equipment has been turned on. Also, the onboard control systems have been turned on.”

The translator continued.

“Ignition! The engines are powered up,” he said. “The Launch! The booster is off!”

How did a countdown become such an essential part of rocket launches in the United States?

The first use of a countdown associated with a rocket launch was in the 1929 German science fiction movie “Frau im Mond” (Woman in the Moon). The film was directed by Fritz Lang and was based on a 1928 novel The Rocket to the Moon written by his wife, Thea von Harbou.

Since “Frau im Mond” was a silent film, there was no rumble and roar associated with the giant rocket’s liftoff. To add drama to the launch sequence, one of the passengers on the rocket announces – with the use of printed slides — “Noch 10 Sekunden – !” (“Only 10 Seconds – !”), followed by “5, 4, 3, 2, 1, JETZT” (NOW).

The movie that is frequently regarded as the first space-related science-fiction film is Georges Méliès’s silent fantasy “A Trip to the Moon” released in 1902. Based on French author Jules Verne’s 1865 book, De la Terre à la Lune (From the Earth to the Moon), is considered the “Star Wars” of the day. On the other hand, freelance science writer Cara Giaimo believes “Frau im Mond” is one of the first “serious” science fiction films.

“It was the ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ of 1929,” she wrote in a 2016 article for Atlas Obscura.The 1968 epic film, “2001,” is often noted for its scientifically accurate depiction of space flight with pioneering special effects.

In an effort to ground film in scientific possibility, Lang signed Austro-Hungarian rocket pioneer Hermann Oberth as technical advisor for the film. In 1923, Oberth’s book Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen (The Rocket to the Planetary Space) inspired many to become interested in the potential use of rockets.

Oberth’s recommendations added realism to the movie, including numerous concepts now a common practice in American space projects such as:

• The movie’s rocket ship was assembled in a large building prior to being moved to the launch pad.
• The rocket blasts off submerged in a pool of water; water now is often used on launch pads to absorb and dissipate the noise generated by the rocket exhaust.
• After the launch, the fictitious rocket’s first stage separated and continued with a second stage.
• The crew recline on horizontal beds to cope with the mounting forces of gravity experienced during the high-speed liftoff.
• Floor foot straps are used to aid the crew experiencing micro-gravity during the coast to the Moon.

Countdowns Becomes Routine

Oberth was a leader in Germany’s Verein für Raumschiffahrt (Society for Spaceflight), founded in 1927. One of the society members was Wernher von Braun, an 18-year-old student at the time, who later described his mentor’s crucial role in the development of theoretical spaceflight.

“Hermann Oberth was the first who, when thinking about the possibility of spaceships, grabbed a slide-rule and presented mathematically analyzed concepts and designs,” von Braun said.

Inspired by “Frau im Mond,”, the Society for Spaceflight added countdowns to their tests of rockets and propulsion systems. In September 1930, before the Nazis came to power, the society requested funding from the German army. Rockets were one of the few types of military development not restricted by the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I.

By the time World War II broke out, the team that included von Braun was developing the world’s first ballistic missile. They called it the A-4, for Aggregate 4. Each launch of the new rocket was preceded with a countdown. The Nazi propaganda ministry renamed it the “V-2,” for Vengeance Weapon-2.

Most members of the rocket team were more interested in exploring space than developing weapons of war. Their technical director, von Braun, dreamed of human spaceflight from his youth. He and other rocket specialists took their skills to U.S. Army forces once the Americans advanced close enough to safely do so.

Von Braun came to America in 1945 with 115 members of his team and 100 of their rockets. They conducted upper atmospheric research and experiments while based at Fort Bliss, Texas and launched the V-2s from the White Sands Missile Range just over the state line in New Mexico.

In 1950, the rocket team moved from Ft. Bliss to Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, becoming part of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency. They soon developed America’s first large missile, the Redstone. Launching rockets from Cape Canaveral, the group would operate under the leadership of von Braun’s colleague, Kurt Debus, the group’s Launch Operations director. By this point, countdowns were accepted as routine, regularly preceding launches of rockets and missiles.

Some 40 years after the silent, black and white version of humans flying to the Moon, it became a reality. Von Braun’s team developed the giant Saturn V rocket that boosted three American astronauts to complete the historic first lunar landing mission lifting off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The launch was preceded by a countdown heard by people around the world.

As Kennedy has evolved into the world’s premier, multi-user spaceport, the agency’s commercial partners have conducted many launches in recent years. Each has their own way of providing commentary, but all culminate with the count from 10 to zero and LIFTOFF!

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