In 1952 UT’s Physics Department was awarded a $98,030 two-year contract by Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville. The scientists on the project, directed by R. R. Newton, associate professor of physics, were attempting to discover the causes of the inaccuracy of fin-stabilized rockets, to determine whether, by improved design, the accuracy of the rockets, then about 20 times less accurate than a gun, could be improved.