Jack Parsons: The Paradoxical Figure Who Revolutionized Rocketry

You’ve probably heard a joke about JPL standing for Jack Parsons Laboratory. Or at least you’ve heard that Jack Parsons was one of the founders of JPL and that a crater on the moon’s dark side is named after him. But have you ever delved into the subtext, personality, habits, and life of Jack Parsons? Probably not. So, that’s what I’m here for.

Over the last month, I’ve studied the life and legacy of this charismatic, visionary, dreamy, mystical… and possibly crazy guy. Remember that in a new world that no one has explored, the first navigators to break rules and patterns and bring new ideas are always considered the crazy ones.

Jack Parsons at the Parsonage, 1942. Public Domain.

Jack Parsons was born in Pasadena in 1914. His real name was Marvel Whiteside Parsons; he shared his father’s name. However, as soon as he was born, Parsons’ mother discovered that his father was not the right guy for her, since he was dating others. So, his mother got divorced and couldn’t stand calling him Marvel anymore; she started calling him John and then Jack. And so he became known to his friends and family in Pasadena as Jack. His maternal grandparents moved to Pasadena to take care of their daughter and grandson, and then they lived in the famous Millionaire’s Mile in Orange Grove. Jack Parsons was always a different, curious, intelligent, and rebellious boy. He did not do well in school (his biographer George Pendle attributes this to undiagnosed dyslexia). When Jack was little, he befriended Edward Forman, another future founder of JPL. He and Edward studied together in the same school in Pasadena.

Parsons was two years younger and bullied, so Edward protected him. From there, a friendship began that lasted for years. According to the many tellings of the Parsons story, including the book Strange Angel written by George Pendle, the CBS All Access series on Paramount+, and the book Sex and Rockets by John Carter, little Jack had a somewhat lonely childhood and loved reading mythology, especially Arabian Nights and Arthurian legend. He was also fascinated by science fiction, such as the fantastic Jules Verne and Hugo Gernsback’s Amazing Stories — Hugo considered among the fathers of science fiction alongside Verne and H. G. Wells — and thus began Jack’s desire to reach the stars. He convinced his friend Edward to do experiments in his garden in Orange Grove, and so the two always met to read science fiction and do explosive experiments to make a spaceship fly. The two boys designed rockets based on gunpowder with aluminum foil, cherry bombs, and glue.

Jack, engaged in this crazy idea of a spaceship flying into space, simultaneously fed his mystical, occult side, making incantations to the devil before bed, a practice he also learned from magazines. Parsons’s interest in rocket science (still fiction) and the occult became increasingly detrimental to his studies at school. He and Edward were also interested in archery and fencing. Due to his poor academic performance, his mother sent him to a military school in San Diego to see if his performance and discipline could improve. As a result, Jack was expelled from school for having exploded the toilet. During the Great Depression, his family lost money and moved to San Rafael Avenue. In 1931, his grandfather died. At this time, Jack studied at a private school, his studies improved and he became editor of the school newspaper, El Universitano, and won a literary award for it. Parsons began working to help his family, who was broke. He then worked at the Hercules Powder Company, starting as a janitor, and with his intelligence and insight, he showed a great interest in chemistry, learned a lot about explosives, and worked his way up the ranks. As Parsons was a guy who didn’t care much about rules or limits and always tried to go beyond them, he often stole materials from the factory to do his experiments. Jack entered Pasadena Junior College to get an associate degree in chemistry or physics but left for financial reasons. Later, he also studied chemistry at Stanford University, but left for the same reason—he couldn’t afford it. Now living alone in a modest house on St. John Avenue, he worked and studied literature and poetry. In 1935, Jack married Helen Northrup.

Jack and Edward continued their rocket tests and attended seminars and lectures at Caltech. One day, the two attended a lecture by Austrian rocket engineer Eugen Sänger and approached him with ideas for designing a liquid-fuel rocket engine. William Bollay, the event organizer and a PhD student specializing in rocket-powered aircraft, introduced Jack and Edward to Frank Malina. Frank Malina was a mechanical engineer and mathematician who studied rocket propulsion. In 1936, the three young men approached Caltech, specifically the wellknown professor and renowned aerodynamicist Theodore von Kármán, and proposed a research project to design a space rocket. After days of thinking, von Kármán accepted the proposal and funded the project. So began the Caltech Rocket Research Project, which later involved talented Caltech students in groundbreaking work on solid and liquid-fuel propulsion. Many people on campus warned Professor Kármán that rocket fuel work could be dangerous to operate at Caltech. Accordingly, the group soon became known as the “suicide squad.”

Because of this, Von Kármán asked for the tests and research to be carried out far away.The project moved to Arroyo Seco, exactly where NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is today. In 1938, the work achieved solid results, even proving theoretical studies by Malina and the Chinese student Hsue-shen Tsien. They were then recognized and gained visibility, attracting the attention of General Henry A. “Hap” Arnold, Chief of the Army Air Corps. Because of the war, the General became interested in the new technology, especially the potential for “Jet-Assisted-Take-Off” that could improve the takeoffs of very heavy warplanes. After the General’s visit, a $10,000 contract came from the Air Corps to develop JATOs (Jet-Assisted Take-Off units). And so the suicide squad got an official name—Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory, California Institute of Technology (GALCIT).

In 1939, Jack and Helen were introduced by a couple of brothers and friends, John and Frances Baxter, to the Thelema church, an occult society founded by Aleister Crowley that was based on sex magick (yes, with a k, it refers to a magic ritual) and black magic. Aleister Crowley, British man, who proclaimed himself to be the beast, was an iconic figure who launched his religion. (He said that he received a channeling when he went on his honeymoon in Cairo, Egypt, from an entity called Aiwass that resulted in The Book of the Law, this book is considered the foundation of the religion of Thelema.) In a time of rigidity and social moralism, he had many famous followers besides Jack Parsons. Just to give you an idea of the influence of the guy and his ideas, Jimmy Page (of Led Zeppelin), The Beatles, David Bowie, Jack Kerouac, The Rolling Stones, Jay-Z, Kanye West, and many others were inspired, believing in and using the symbols of Crowley’s magic. From then on, Jack began to have two opposite sides to his personality: a renowned scientist, chemist, and pioneer—charismatic, yet also an occultist and bohemian who dove deep into the abyss of his own psyche, “talked” to entities, used exotic symbols, practiced orgies, and believed wholeheartedly in the great beast.

However, what do the two lives he explored have in common? Innovation, the unexplored, audacity, pushing limits, experimenting without safety, and a passion for risk whether in the case of exploding rockets or summoning demons.

The more he consolidated himself and made history in rocket science, the more he fell in love with the metaphysical and occult world.

The group of scientists was gaining renown and prestige. Parsons invented the solid JATO fuel, with amide, corn starch, and ammonium nitrate bound together in the JATO unit with glue and blotting paper. This creation was called GALCIT-27. The first JATO was tested using an ERCO Ercoupe plane (of the Engineering and Research Corporation) in July 1941. It exploded. Jack then realized that the ammonium nitrate could be altered due to the change in weather during the night. Parsons and Malina therefore filled the JATOs in the early morning, and the operation was considered successful. In 1942, Malina suggested replacing the gasoline with aniline, which resulted in a successful test, but this time was five times safer than GALCIT-27. The group then created Aerojet to sell more than 60 JATO engines to the United States Army Air Corps.

GALCIT Project Number 1 during the JATO experiments, 1941. From left to right: Fred S. Miller, Jack Parsons, Ed Forman, Frank Malina, Captain Homer Boushey, Private Kobe, and Corporal R. Hamilton. Public Domain.

Parsons changed the future of rocket technology when he suggested using asphalt in the GALCIT-53 design. This design proved 427% more powerful and safer than GALCIT-27, as asphalt is stable in changing weather conditions and can be mass-produced. In 1943, the Air Corps purchased two thousand JATOs from Aerojet, committing $256,000 toward Parsons’ solid-fuel type.

As Parsons’ success and recognition grew, he repurchased a mansion on Millionaire’s Mile in Orange Grove. He made the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), Thelema Church, also called Agape Lodge, his home. He had a thirst for magic and rituals. The Order had degrees that you could climb according to the time and effort applied to it, Jack wanted to skip degrees. So he quickly initiated himself into the degrees that were approved by his mentor, Aleister Crowley. Crowley lived in London and suffered from asthma and heroin addiction, but they exchanged letters all the time and Aleister greatly admired a renowned scientist who had joined the Order. The house was home to artists, anarchists, gays, Black people, and all the socially excluded of the time. It was a bohemian, happy, crazy, and transgressive house. Parsons nicknamed the house the Parsonage. His wife Helen began to have a whole relationship with the magus of the Order, while Jack left Helen for her sister. Animal sacrifices took place during the rites, and the Pasadena society began to get angry and accused them of making human sacrifices, which was never proven. The police often knocked on their door to check the neighbors’ complaints, but they only found a charismatic and charming man, Jack Parsons, full of stories and smooth talk.

Jack gave almost all his salary to support Thelema and its followers, and even sent money to Crowley in London. Of course, all this spending of money and enthusiasm for Thelema and the time he spent performing rituals began to affect his professional life. Jack invited the secretaries from his work to participate in the rituals, since he constantly needed more members for the occult society. Parsons had a habit of reciting Ad astra per aspera (through hardships to the stars), a Latin phrase that he had been saying with Edward since he was a child when they were launching a project. He also began reciting Crowley’s poems and performing small magic rituals during his work. His occult side raised an alarm, since he was working on confidential projects and there were rumors that Crowley was an agent of British intelligence who was betraying intelligence by spying for Germany. The Agape lodge began to be investigated by the FBI and the Pasadena police. Parsons was promoted to leader of the Order, and then the former magus was expelled from the lodge. His ex-wife Helen left with the magus, pregnant with his child.

The GALCIT project grew exponentially due to the United States’ concern about Nazi Germany. They received $3 million in funding to develop rocket-based weapons and were renamed JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory). Jack was asked to sell his share of JPL and Aerojet, since he was being investigated and involved with the occult. Under pressure, he sold his share, completely outraged, and received $11,000.

Jack’s life began to decline and become more complex. He no longer had the salary to support the Order, so he started renting rooms in the mansion to non-Thelemites. After reading a newspaper ad for room rentals, the iconic figure L. Ron Hubbard—yes, the future founder of Scientology—appeared.

From 1945 to 1946, Jack and Hubbard became best friends. Hubbard dived headfirst into black magic, witchcraft, and voodoo with Jack. The two would spend entire days trying to summon evil. However, Hubbard began a full-time relationship with Sara, Helen’s sister, Jack’s current girlfriend. Jack, even while practicing polygamy, became jealous and started to practice rites so that a woman would appear to him. Hubbard stayed with Sara and the two convinced Jack to invest money in a project called Allied Enterprises, which consisted of buying three yachts in Miami and selling them at a higher price between the Panama Canal and the West Coast, thus making a profit. Parsons fell for the con and gave them $21,000, so they went to Miami, bought a yacht and tried to flee the United States.

Jack discovered the scam while they were still in Miami and had already bought a yacht to escape and keep the rest of the money. Parsons flew to Miami and did black magic in a hotel to the god Mars, who— according to him—created a storm in the ocean that prevented the couple from fleeing. He sued them both, but Sara claimed that if he didn’t drop the lawsuit, she would accuse him of abuse, since she was a minor when they had the relationship. Jack dropped the lawsuit and returned to Pasadena, broke. He met his new wife, Marjorie, whom he said is an evil goddess named Babalon who had appeared after his rituals. From then on, he could no longer work in his field, ran out of money, sold his house, closed the Order, and began to work on random jobs. In 1952, Parsons received explosives for a film set (he did pyrotechnics for Hollywood films) and began to work on it in his home laboratory. An explosion occurred and Jack died minutes later at Huntington Memorial Hospital. Some say it was part of a spell, while others say he was murdered. The cause of death, according to the police, was Parsons’ mixing of fulminate of mercury in a coffee can, which caused the explosion.

What an extravagant, brilliant, tragic and sad story Jack Parsons, the forever co-founder of JPL and Aerojet, had. The purpose of this article is not to judge him, but rather to honor a figure who passed through our planet so quickly and brought so much innovation.