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View Full Version : First Rocket Launch from Cape Canaveral



ilan
10-01-2018, 01:55 PM
Astronomy Picture of the Day
NASA Release | 1 October 2018




https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1810/bumper2_nasa_1500.jpg
The First Rocket Launch from Cape Canaveral
Credit: NASA



A new chapter in space flight began in 1950 with the launch of the first rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida: the Bumper V-2. Featured here, 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 International Space Station. 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, 60 years ago today, the USA created NASA.