Jack Parsons
PEOPLE | 1914-1952
John Whiteside Parsons
John Whiteside Parsons (born Marvel Whiteside Parsons, 2 October 1914 – 17 June 1952), commonly known as Jack Parsons, was an American self-taught chemist and rocket propulsion engineer whose innovations in solid-fuel technology laid foundational groundwork for modern rocketry.
Parsons was a pioneering experimentalist in applied rocketry, despite possessing only a high-school education and never obtaining a university degree. He led a double existence: a brilliant scientist and explosives expert by day, and a committed ritualist and black magician by night who worshipped Aleister Crowley and called himself the Antichrist.
Parsons’s life exemplified a rare fusion of empirical innovation and metaphysical experimentation, driven by a rebellion against the limits of human existence.
Parsons died at the age of 37 in an explosion at his home laboratory in Pasadena. The International Astronomical Union named a crater on the dark side of the Moon Parsons after him in 1972, in recognition of his pivotal role in developing the solid fuel rocket.
Early Life and Education
Parsons was born Marvel Whiteside Parsons on 2 October 1914, in Los Angeles, California. His mother was Ruth Virginia Whiteside Parsons, and his father was Marvel H. Parsons. Following his father's adultery, his mother initiated divorce proceedings by March 1915 and renamed him John Whiteside Parsons, known as Jack, to distance him from his father. He was raised primarily by his mother and maternal grandparents, experiencing a solitary childhood in Pasadena on Orange Grove Avenue, known as Millionaire's Row.
Formative influences included science fiction literature, such as the works of Jules Verne, H G Wells and the pulp magazine Amazing Stories, which ignited his fascination with rocketry and space travel.
He displayed an early aptitude for chemistry and explosives, conducting unsupervised experiments with gunpowder and homemade devices in his backyard with his friend Edward Forman. Parsons briefly attended Pasadena Junior College but dropped out to earn a salary at Hercules Powder Company, where he learned about explosives and occasionally stole materials for his experiments. His personal writings stated that his upbringing instilled in him a hatred of authority and a spirit of revolution, the Satanic rebellion of God.
Pioneering Rocketry Career
In the spring of 1934, Parsons and Edward Forman, rocket enthusiasts with limited formal education, approached the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) seeking resources for propulsion research. They were introduced to Frank Malina, a doctoral student in aeronautics under the direction of the renowned Dr. Theodore Von Kármán at the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at Caltech (GALCIT).
The three formed the GALCIT Rocket Research Group, which relied on Parsons's uninhibited chemical intuitions, Forman's mechanical ability, and Malina's rigorous scientific background and worked mainly with their own personal funds, predominantly Parsons's salary.
The group became known as the Suicide Squad due to the perilous nature of their experiments, which sometimes resulted in spontaneous explosions and noxious fumes. This early group, working in the Arroyo Seco canyon, is considered the forerunner of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Parsons was later described as a rocket savant.
The group secured its first grant from the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in June 1939 for developing Jet Assisted Take Off (JATO) rockets to aid military aircraft performance. Parsons was the personal intuition driving the propellant formulation. He achieved the first successful formulation, GALCIT-27, which provided sufficient thrust for a test flight in August 1941.
In June 1942, Parsons made a breakthrough by inventing the first castable composite solid rocket propellant, known as GALCIT-53. This new formulation replaced black powder altogether, using molten asphalt as an organic matrix binder and potassium perchlorate (KP) as the crystalline inorganic oxidiser. This innovation dramatically improved performance and stability against thermal cycles and enabled mass production, signing the birth of modern solid propellant rocketry. Parsons also contributed to liquid fuel innovations by advancing the use of aniline with fuming nitric acid as a storable oxidiser.
Founding of Aerojet and JPL
The success of the JATO program during World War II led to the founding of the Aerojet Engineering Corporation in 1942, co-founded by Parsons, Forman, Malina, Von Kármán, Martin Summerfield, and Andrew Haley, to commercialise the JATO technology for the U.S. military. The technology was used extensively by the U.S. Navy and Army Air Corps, and its use in rescuing military personnel from isolated sites is estimated to have saved 4,500 lives.
In summer 1943, the GALCIT Rocket Research Group formally transformed into the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The aerospace industry occasionally nicknamed the facility as Jack Parsons Laboratory.
By 1944, concerns over Parsons's unconventional behaviour, including dangerous work practices and involvement with the occult, led to him and Forman being obliged to sell their shares and leave Aerojet. Parsons sold his shares for $11,000. His removal was accelerated by the post-war environment, which lacked patience for eccentrics despite his groundbreaking technical contributions.
Occult and Thelemic Pursuits
Parsons immersed himself deeply in occult practices. In January 1939, he and his first wife, Helen, were introduced to the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.) in Pasadena, which promoted Thelema, the esoteric philosophy of Aleister Crowley.
Parsons and Helen were formally initiated into the Agape Lodge of the O.T.O. in February 1941. He adopted the motto Thelema Obtentum Procedero Amoris Nuptiae and identified with the magical number 210. Parsons was a loyal disciple of Crowley from as early as 1939 and sent him money for his upkeep and the O.T.O. publishing fund.
Parsons quickly ascended the ranks, eventually becoming the head of the Agape Lodge around 1943-1944. Lodge activities relocated to his mansion in Pasadena, which became known as the Parsonage.
Parsons often recited Crowley’s Hymn to Pan before rocket launches.
Parsons believed that Thelema’s Magic / magick could be understood through quantum physics, seeing rocketry and the occult as two sides of the same coin: one freeing the body and the other freeing the mind.
The Parsonage hosted a bohemian and unconventional environment, where sexual experimentation and rituals aligned with Thelemic principles of Do what thou wilt. Parsons commenced an affair with his wife Helen’s 17-year-old half-sister, Sara Elizabeth Betty Northrup, leading to his divorce from Helen in 1945.
The Babalon Working and L. Ron Hubbard
In late 1945, Parsons met L Ron Hubbard, a science fiction writer and former naval officer, who moved into the Parsonage. Parsons was highly impressed by Hubbard, whom he considered to be in direct touch with a higher intelligence and possibly his Guardian Angel, and regarded him as the most Thelemic person he had ever met.
From January to March 1946, Parsons and Hubbard performed a series of rituals known as the Babalon Working, aiming to incarnate the Thelemic goddess Babalon (the Scarlet Woman) in a human vessel. Parsons conducted the invocations, which involved Enochian magic and sex Magic elements, while Hubbard served as the seer and scribe, channeling visions and prophecies.
Parsons recorded the dictates as Liber 49, which he proclaimed to be the fourth chapter of The Book of the Law. Following the rituals, Parsons met artist Marjorie Cameron, whom he believed was the elemental mate and manifestation of Babalon he had invoked.
Hubbard began an affair with Parsons' partner, Sara Northrup. Parsons later entered into a fraudulent business scheme, Allied Enterprises, with Hubbard and Northrup, investing his life savings of nearly $21,000 to purchase yachts.
Hubbard and Northrup subsequently absconded with Parsons' money and boat to Florida. Parsons flew to Miami and performed an invocation to Bartzabel, the god of Mars, which he believed created a storm that forced Hubbard's yacht back to port. Parsons recovered only a fraction of his investment. Aleister Crowley, Parsons's mentor, deemed Hubbard a confidence man and called Parsons a weak-minded fool.
Post-War Challenges and Death
Following World War II, Parsons faced scrutiny from the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) amid the Second Red Scare, intensified by his bohemian lifestyle, occult practices, and associations with figures like Frank Malina, who faced communist allegations. The FBI viewed Parsons’s unconventional activities, including his use of drugs and his involvement in rituals, as indicative of a security risk.
In 1948, his security clearance was revoked while employed at North American Aviation, effectively ending his career in classified rocketry. He temporarily regained clearance and worked at Hughes Aircraft Corporation, but an incident in 1950 involving the removal of classified rocket documents led to his permanent security clearance denial in January 1952. Parsons had hoped to use the documents to secure a job with the Israeli rocket program.
Barred from rocketry, Parsons supported himself through freelance chemistry and creating special effects pyrotechnics for Hollywood films. During this period, he embraced his magical identity, taking the Oath of Magister Templi and declaring himself Belarion, Antichrist, dedicated to fulfilling the law of the Beast 666.
Parsons died on 17 June 1952, at 5:08 p.m., in an explosion in his home laboratory in Pasadena, where he was mixing chemicals for a film order. The blast, which rocked the neighbourhood, was officially attributed by the police investigation to Parsons accidentally dropping a coffee can containing fulminate of mercury, a highly sensitive high explosive. He died from multiple injuries at Huntington Memorial Hospital. His mother, Ruth, committed suicide shortly after hearing of his death. Many close associates rejected the ruling of accident, noting that a scientist of his experience would not have made such a mistake, leading to speculation of suicide or murder.
Legacy
Parsons's invention of the castable composite solid propellant enabled reliable, scalable rocket motors that were foundational to U.S. space systems, including the solid rocket boosters used in the Space Shuttle program.
His contributions, though overshadowed by his scandalous personal life and subsequent professional marginalisation, were crucial in transitioning rocketry from an amateur pursuit to an industrial science. Wernher von Braun acknowledged Parsons as a foundational researcher in applied rocketry. Frank Malina asserted that Parsons made key contributions to storable propellants and long duration solid propellant engines and had not yet received his due for his pioneering work. The International Astronomical Union recognised his legacy by naming a crater on the dark side of the Moon Parsons in 1972.