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This article is about the American rocket engineer. For other people with the same name, see Jack Parsons (disambiguation).

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Jack Parsons
Parsons in 1941
Born	Marvel Whiteside Parsons (1914-10-02)October 2, 1914 Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Died	June 17, 1952(1952-06-17) (aged 37) Pasadena, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Explosion
Resting place	Mojave Desert
Other names	John Whiteside Parsons
Alma mater	Pasadena Junior College Stanford University University of Southern California (no degrees)
Occupations	\n Rocket engineer \n scientist \n businessman \n occultist \n
Organizations	Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Aerojet Engineering Corporation North American Aviation Hughes Aircraft Company
Spouses	\n Helen Northrup \n (m. 1935; div. 1946) \n Marjorie Cameron (m. 1946)

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Key figures

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John Whiteside Parsons (born Marvel Whiteside Parsons;^{[nb 1]} October 2, 1914 \u2013 June 17, 1952) was an American rocket engineer, chemist, and Thelemite occultist. Parsons was one of the principal founders of both the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the Aerojet Engineering Corporation. He invented the first rocket engine to use a castable, composite rocket propellant,^[1] and pioneered the advancement of both liquid-fuel and solid-fuel rockets.\n

Parsons was raised in Pasadena, California. He began amateur rocket experiments with school friend Edward Forman in 1928. Parsons was admitted to Stanford University but left before graduating due to financial hardship during the Great Depression. In 1934, Parsons, Forman, and Frank Malina formed the Caltech-affiliated Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory (GALCIT) Rocket Research Group, with support by GALCIT chairman Theodore von K\u00e1rm\u00e1n. The group worked on Jet-Assisted Take Off (JATO) for the U.S. military, and founded Aerojet in 1942 to develop and sell JATO technology during World War 2. The GALCIT Rocket Research Group became JPL in 1943.\n

In 1939, Parsons converted to Thelema, a religious movement founded by English occultist Aleister Crowley. Parsons and his first wife, Helen Northrup, joined the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO); he became the California OTO branch leader in 1942. Historians of Western esotericism cite him as a prominent figure in propagating Thelema in North America. Parsons was dismissed from JPL and Aerojet in 1944, due to his involvement with OTO and his hazardous laboratory practices. In 1945, he and his wife divorced. In 1946, he married Marjorie Cameron. Shortly afterward, L. Ron Hubbard defrauded Parsons of his life savings. \n

Parsons worked as an explosives expert during the late 1940s, but his career in rocketry ended due to accusations of espionage and the increasing trend of McCarthyism. Parsons died at the age of 37 in a home laboratory explosion in 1952; his death was officially ruled an accident but many of his associates suspected suicide or murder.^[2] Although publicly unknown during his lifetime, Parsons is now recognized for his innovations in rocket engineering, advocacy of space exploration and human spaceflight, and as an important figure in the history of the U.S. space program. He has been the subject of several biographies and fictionalized portrayals.\n

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v t e Thelema
Organizations	\n A\u2234A\u2234 \n Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica \n Fraternitas Saturni \n O\u2234A\u2234A\u2234 \n Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn \n Ordo Templi Orientis \n Society Ordo Templi Orientis \n Thelemic Order of the Golden Dawn \n Typhonian Order \n
Personalities	\n List of Thelemites \n Ankh-af-na-khonsu \n Aleister Crowley \n Kenneth Anger \n Allan Bennett \n William Breeze \n Mary Butts \n Marjorie Cameron \n Lon Milo DuQuette \n Jeanne Robert Foster \n J. F. C. Fuller \n Karl Germer \n Kenneth Grant \n Lady Frieda Harris \n Leah Hirsig \n Christopher Hyatt \n Charles Stansfeld Jones \n George Cecil Jones \n Richard Kaczynski \n Rose Edith Kelly \n James Lees \n Grady Louis McMurtry \n Mogg Morgan \n Marcelo Ramos Motta \n Nema Andahadna \n Victor Neuburg \n Sara Northrup \n Jack Parsons \n Helen Parsons Smith \n Theodor Reuss \n C. F. Russell \n Phyllis Seckler \n Wilfred Talbot Smith \n Leila Waddell \n James Wasserman \n Sam Webster \n Jane Wolfe \n
Thelemic texts	\n Aleister Crowley bibliography \n The Book of Lies \n The Book of the Law (Liber AL vel Legis) \n The Book of Thoth \n Clouds without Water \n Collected Works \n Confessions \n The Diary of a Drug Fiend \n Eight Lectures on Yoga \n The Equinox\n The Blue Equinox \n The Equinox of the Gods \n The Holy Books of Thelema \n Konx Om Pax \n The Law is for All \n Liber 777 \n Liber Aleph \n Liber OZ \n Liber Pennae Praenumbra \n Liber Resh \n Liber Trigrammaton \n Little Essays Toward Truth \n Magick (Book 4) \n Magick Without Tears \n Moonchild \n One Star in Sight \n The Stratagem and other Stories \n Thoth Tarot \n The Vision and the Voice \n White Stains \n
Concepts and ideas	\n 93 \n Abyss \n Aeon \n Agape \n Astral projection \n Body of light \n English Qaballa \n Great Work \n Hermetic Qabalah \n Holy Guardian Angel \n Magical formula \n Night of Pan \n Stele of Revealing \n Stellar wisdom \n True Will \n
Magick	\n Abrahadabra \n Ceremonial magic \n Enochian magic \n Eroto-comatose lucidity \n Goetia \n Obeah and wanga \n Sex magic \n
Ceremony and ritual	\n Liber Resh \n Pentagram Ritual \n Bornless Ritual \n Gnostic Mass \n Rites of Eleusis \n
Godforms	\n Nuit \n Hadit \n Heru-ra-ha \n Aiwass \n Therion \n Babalon \n Chaos \n Ma'at \n Harpocrates \n
Symbolism	\n Number of the beast \n Pentagram \n Rose Cross \n Tree of Life \n Unicursal hexagram \n
Related topics	\n Abbey of Thelema \n Abramelin oil \n Agape Lodge \n Boleskine House \n Book of Abramelin \n Cake of Light \n Choronzon \n Dianism \n Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn \n IPSOS \n Magical alphabet \n Magical organization \n Solar deity \n Solar Lodge \n The Beast \n Whore of Babylon \n

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Biography

Early life: 1914\u20131934

GALCIT Rocket Research Group and the Kynette trial: 1934\u20131938

Embracing Thelema; advancing JATO and foundation of Aerojet: 1939\u20131942

Foundation of JPL and leading the Agape Lodge: 1942\u20131944

L. Ron Hubbard and the Babalon Working: 1945\u20131946

Loss of FBI clearance, Red Scare Marxist and espionage accusations and acquittal: 1946\u20131952

Death: 1952

Personal life

Personality

Professional associations

Philosophy

Religious beliefs

Politics

Legacy and influence

Patents

See also

References

Notes

Citations

Works cited

Further reading

External links

Jack Parsons - American rocket engineer (1914–1952)

Jack Parsons - American rocket engineer (1914–1952)