The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Tennessee Section will host a Zoom presentation by Professor Mike Gruntman of the University of Southern California on Wednesday, August 26, 2026 from 10:00 am to 11:15 am. The title of the presentation is: "Intercept 1961: From Air Defense SA-1 to the Birth of Soviet Missile Defense." The Zoom presentation can be accessed using the following information:
Zoom link: https://tennessee.zoom.us/j/88597129417?pwd=l1YHEneegmeyi5vJKWXwtNm0q1b5dJ.1
Meeting ID: 885 9712 9417
passcode: aiaa
The presentation will be on view and open to the public in the "Lower-A Conference Room" at the University of Tennessee Space Institute.
For more information, see the attached flyer or contact Joseph Wehrmeyer at wehrmeyer@bellsouth.net (615-403-2449).
INTERCEPT 1961: FROM AIR DEFENSE SA-1 TO THE BIRTH
OF SOVIET MISSILE DEFENSE
ABSTRACT
This 70 minute lecture focuses on Soviet strategic missile defense. On 4 March 1961, a guided missile intercepted and
destroyed the approaching warhead of an intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM) SS-4 at the Saryshagan test site
in the Kazakhstan desert. This event led to the emergence of a powerful political, military, scientific-technological, and
industrial missile defense complex in the Soviet Union, a major factor in shaping U.S. defense programs and
technologies during the Cold War. A new chapter in the eternal competition between protecting and avenging,
between the sword and the shield, has begun. The lecture tells a little-known story, based on an AIAA-published book,
of the first Soviet antiaircraft system SA-1 and the first intercept of an IRBM, leading to the birth of Soviet missile
defense and deployment of the first operational missile defense system A-35.
BIOGRAPHY
Mike Gruntman's life journey took him from a child growing on the Tyuratam (Baikonur) missile and space launch base
during the late 1950s and early 1960s to an accomplished space physicist and engineer to joining USC in 1990 and
founding a major educational program in space engineering. Today it is a nationally recognized unique astronautical
engineering department at USC. Dr. Gruntman is actively involved in R&D programs in space science and space
technology. He served as a co-investigator (Co-I) on NASA missions and is a recipient of three NASA Group
Achievement Awards. He has authored and co-authored more than 300 scholarly publications, including seven books.
His Blazing the Trail: The Early History of Spacecraft and Rocketry (AIAA, 2004) won the International Academy of
Astronautics book award. More than three thousand graduate students have taken Dr. Gruntman's courses in space
systems and rocket propulsion at USC. He also teaches short courses (AIAA and ATI) for government and industry. Dr.
Gruntman is an AIAA Associate Fellow and Member (Academician) of the International Academy of Astronautics.
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Joseph Wehrmeyer
Retired
Monteagle TN
(615)403-2449
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