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Frank Malina

1912–1981 · 69 years

Built America's first space rocket, then made kinetic light art in Paris

Portrait of Frank Malina — NASA — circa 1950 — Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

The Malinas went back to Moravia when Frank was seven and stayed five years, so the boy from Brenham, Texas, spent a chunk of his childhood in the country his father had left. He returned in 1925, entered Texas A&M in 1930, took a mechanical engineering degree in 1934 and a scholarship to Caltech, where Theodore von Kármán became his doctoral supervisor and, more usefully, his sponsor. From 1936 Malina and a few friends and unaffiliated enthusiasts ran their experiments in the Arroyo Seco, a dry riverbed west of Pasadena, because the work was judged too dangerous for campus. Caltech called them the Suicide Squad.

What that group built became an institution. In 1943 the Army funded the Arroyo Seco work as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and when von Kármán moved to Washington, Malina, its chief engineer, took over as director and held the post until 1946. He had already co-founded Aerojet in 1942 with von Kármán, Jack Parsons and three others. In October 1945 his WAC Corporal climbed to roughly 230,000 feet above White Sands, higher than any American rocket had flown. Colleagues credited him with the thing nobody else did: turning a set of enthusiasms into an engineering programme.

He had joined a Communist study group at Caltech in the late 1930s, Unit 122, along with Frank Oppenheimer, Martin Summerfield and others, and campaigned against the segregation of a Pasadena swimming pool. The FBI opened a file on him in 1942 and searched his house in 1946. In 1947 he left the United States for UNESCO in Paris and never worked in American rocketry again. In December 1952, at Hoover's insistence, prosecutors indicted him for failing to disclose Communist Party membership on a Caltech security form. His passport was invalidated and he was formally a fugitive. The indictment was dismissed in 1954. Investigators worked the case until 1960 and never produced evidence of espionage. JPL's own histories left him out for decades.

The Aerojet stock had made him independent, and from 1953 he painted full time. In 1956 he arrived at the Lumidyne system, electric light driving painted and moving elements behind a translucent screen. By his own count he made some 3,000 pieces over the next two decades, and showed at the Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris, the Stedelijk in Amsterdam and the Smithsonian. In 1968 he founded Leonardo, the journal of art, science and technology, which still publishes. He died of a heart attack at his home in Boulogne-Billancourt on November 9 1981. The International Astronautical Federation now gives an annual medal in his name, and in 2022 the Czech Republic awarded him a Medal of Merit.

Lifespan

15401700180019002030

Frank Malina's life against the full span of the corpus.

Notable works

GALCIT Rocket Research Project other
The Suicide Squad's work in the Arroyo Seco 1936
Aerojet Engineering Corporation other
Co-founded with von Kármán, Parsons, Forman, Summerfield and Haley 1942
Jet Propulsion Laboratory other
Co-founder and chief engineer, then director from 1944 to 1946 1943
WAC Corporal other
The first American sounding rocket to reach the edge of space 1945
Lumidyne kinetic paintings artwork
Painted and moving elements lit from behind a translucent screen 1956
Leonardo other
The journal of art, science and technology, still published 1968

Life in brief

with age at each point

1936 aged ~24 The Suicide Squad begins its experiments in the Arroyo Seco Moved off campus because the tests were judged too dangerous for it.
1942 aged ~30 Co-founds the Aerojet Engineering Corporation With von Kármán, Jack Parsons, Ed Forman, Martin Summerfield and Andrew Haley.
1943 aged ~31 The Army funds the Arroyo Seco work as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Von Kármán was named director, Malina chief engineer.
1944 aged ~32 Takes over as director of JPL when von Kármán leaves for Washington He held the post until 1946.
October 11, 1945 aged 33 The WAC Corporal climbs to about 230,000 feet over White Sands Higher than any American rocket had flown, and counted at the time as the edge of space.
1947 aged ~35 Leaves the United States for a post at UNESCO in Paris He never worked in American rocketry again.
December 1952 aged 40 Indicted for concealing Communist Party membership and declared a fugitive The indictment was dismissed in 1954 and no evidence of espionage was ever produced.
1968 aged ~56 Founds Leonardo, the journal of art, science and technology He edited it until his death.
November 9, 1981 aged 69 Dies of a heart attack at his home in Boulogne-Billancourt