Frank Malina was a lot of things. The Texas-born aeronautical engineer co-designed the first jet-assisted take-off (Jato) rocket and the US’s first operational high-altitude rocket. He co-founded and became director of Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory – and along the way, joined a team of rocket engineers who became known as the “suicide squad” for their risk-taking approach.
Malina was also a pacifist and anti-fascist, a card-carrying member of the Communist party, and a painter and pioneer in the field of kinetic art – where motion, be it mechanically or naturally produced, is critical to the artwork. His efforts to bridge science and technology with the creative arts led to him launching Leonardo, MIT press’s world-leading journal on the use of contemporary science and technology in the arts and music.
