The First Rocket Launch from Cape Canaveral
Explanation:
A new chapter in space flight began this week in 1950 July with the
launch of the first rocket from
Cape Canaveral,
Florida: the Bumper V-2.
Shown above, the
Bumper V-2 was an ambitious two-stage rocket program that topped a
V-2 missile base with a
WAC Corporal rocket.
The upper stage was able to reach then-record altitudes of almost 400 kilometers,
higher than even
Space Shuttles once flew.
Launched
under the direction of the
General Electric Company,
the Bumper V-2 was used primarily for
testing rocket systems and for research on the
upper atmosphere.
Bumper V-2 rockets carried
small payloads that
allowed them to measure attributes including air temperature and
cosmic ray impacts.
Seven years later, the Soviet Union launched
Sputnik I and Sputnik II, the first
satellites into Earth orbit.
In response in 1958, the
US created NASA.
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Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
