Page 179 - Lunacy and the Age of Deception

Popular Mechanics, August 1940

Although not a universally well known individual, Jack Parsons was popular among certain groups
such as science fiction fans and rocket buffs. It has been suggested that Marvel Comics modeled the
th
character of Howard Stark, an early 20 century inventor, engineer, and military contractor, after
Jack Parsons. In the recent Marvel television series Agent Carter, Howard Stark is played by
Dominic Cooper. The resemblance to Jack Parsons is striking.

The character Howard Stark may be better known as the father of Tony Stark who is Iron Man. Since
Jack Parsons was a rocket developer, and Iron Man flies around in a rocket powered suit, the
association between Howard Stark and Jack Parsons is understandable. Added to the speculation is
the fact that Jack Parsons’ first name is Marvel, and Marvel Comics owns these characters.

Jack Parsons would make some breakthroughs in rocket technology. Some of the technology would
even end up in NASA’s Space Shuttles. One particular breakthrough by Parsons has struck me as
significant, having a relationship to the history of ancient Babel as recorded in the Scriptures.
Parsons believed solid fuel rockets had many benefits over liquid fuel, but solid fuel rockets had a
reputation for being volatile and would explode spontaneously when stored for any length of time.
Parsons had an epiphany while observing workers spreading molten asphalt on a roof to be used to
secure tiles in place.

Frank Malina, one of the original members of the JPL group, years later recounted in a speech that
Parsons immediately saw the potential of using asphalt as a binding agent for the volatile chemicals
in a solid rocket motor. The new fuel Parsons developed was known as GALCIT-53. It was markedly
less volatile than earlier solid rocket fuels while also providing 427% more power than its