Lebanese Rocket Society, started at Haigazian University in 1960 by the mathematics professor Manoug Manougian and his students. A thread

The society, first known as Haigazian College Rocket Society, was on the front pages of Lebanese newspapers as it was common during the 1960s space race. The project was funded by deputy Emile Bustani who donated 750 Lebanese pounds.

The students Garabed Basmajian, Hampar Karageozian, Hrair Aintablian, John Tilkian, Simon Abrahamian, Jean Jacques Gubekian, Hrair Sahagian, among many were all children of Armenian genocide survivors.
Haigazian's 1960 yearbook

Manougian, the mastermind behind the rocket society, was born in Jerusalem in 1935. He was always inspired by rockets drawing them on his desk as a kid.

The very first project was done with a small rocket in Mount Lebanon, at Hrair Keleshian's family farm. They had difficulty finding propellants, so they started from scratch and studied the right combination & amount of chemicals.

The first launch was attended by the whole student body, Manougian and the president of Haigazian, John Markarian. The rocket was a bit over a meter. Parts of it ended up at the entrance of a Greek Orthodox church causing panic. The government stepped in & the army took it away.

An important figure who helped the rocket society was captain Youssef Wehbe, a lieutenant specialized in ballistics. Without him, there would have been financial limits and difficulty in accessing some products because they were only sold to the army.

The rockets Manougian and his students drew were built at the army factory because the tubes available on the market were too small. They worked with army mechanics and Pierre Mourad, professor at the American University of Beirut (AUB).

Back then, there were no studies on rocketry in the Near East. Lebanon took the lead encouraging students and neighboring countries. The Lebanese ministry of education helped them financially.

Unfortunately most of the archives and footages about the rocket experiments were lost during the civil war. For example, half of Assaad Jradi's photographs were burned by his brother out of fear during the Israeli invasion.

Another important photographer of these rocket experiments was Harry Koundakjian whose pictures were featured on the front pages of newspapers and who also took pictures of Gary Cooper, Feyrouz and the spy Kim Philby. He was present at Cedar 2A, 2B, 3 & 4 launches in Sannine.

Cedar III (الأرز 3) was launched on Lebanon's independence day in 1962 and had a length of 6.8 meters. Cedar IV was also launched on independence day and at this point the HCRS became known as Lebanese Rocket Society.

The rocket was tracked by the Lebanese navy bc at that time Lebanon didn't have radars. Travelling straight, it would've ended up on Cyprus so they deviated. But alas the British ambassador called them and said the rocket ended up near Cypriot boats. Cyprus protested at the UN.

Here comes Joseph Sfeir. A native of Jounieh, Sfeir had a telecommunications degree and was one of the workers who constructed Lebanon's sole cable car. He was trained in England at Decca Navigator whose science & methodology started to be used in Lebanese rockets.

The ambition didn't end with rockets. The society wanted to send Mickey the Mouse to space but Manougian's wife, an animal-lover, protested and convinced them against this idea.

Lebanon had a "space fever". AUB students also built a rocket named Hannibal but it was a failure because they didn't get the chemicals right.

Students aged 13 to 15 led by their teacher, MR. Maalouf, at the Hoda School in Shiyeh, southern Beirut, also built a rocket that reached 15 meters in the sky.

Other countries in the region became interested in rockets, especially Egypt & Israel who had military goals. In 1962 Egypt began testing rockets with the help of 250 German scientists who had worked with von Braun, a Nazi scientist who ended up being one of the founders of NASA.

This scared Israelis who initiated Operation Damocles led by Wolfgang Lotz known as "Champagne Spy". The operation threatened German scientists working for Egypt. Lotz was arrested in Egypt in 1965 but was handed over to Israel as exchange with 5,000 Egyptians in the June '67 war

Back then, the Near East was a hub for espionage with spies under the payroll of either the US or USSR (or both). It was also the era of the Space Race. These two combined created suspicion for the rockets in Lebanon.

Manougian's office for example was constantly ransacked with people looking through his papers. At first, the small rockets didn't have a long trajectory. It was in 1964-65 with bigger rockets that the radius got bigger making Israel concerned.

A friend brought Manoug to a party organized by the Lebanese army at 2 AM in Beirut. He sensed something was off. The head of an Arab country congratulated Manougian and offered him to work for his country but he refused lying he'll come back the next day but he was gonna travel.

After 2 years of the rocket society, Manougian left. The rest continued with more powerful rocket fuel. But the chemicals were dangerous and unauthorized by the government. However, because of their relations with the army, they were able to use them.

The danger led to an accident at Haigazian when working with pure chloride. Hrair Sahagian was trapped inside, lost an eye and had his hands severely injured. His colleagues came for help burning themselves in the process. They were hospitalized for 3 days at AUB Mediacl Center.

After this ordeal, Haigazian sealed its lab doors. In this case, the army took control over the rocket projects and the audience got smaller with lesser press coverage.

In 1964, Manoug comes back but got scared that the project has become militarized. Wehbe was fine with the military objective and the army pretended to do scientific experiments in front of Manougian and the other civilians.

At this point, the project stopped under pressure from foreign countries. President Chehab asked them to stop the project, especially in June 1967 during the Arab-Isreali war. Manougian was sorrowful with this end and most of the scientists involved in the projects left Lebanon.

This era of our history needs to be celebrated and known by every Lebanese, especially the youth.
Replica based on the Cedar-4 rocket, 8 meters long and weighing 1 tone, at Haigazian.