Spaceflight Spaceflight (or space flight) is an application of astronautics to fly objects, usually spacecraft, into or through outer space, either with or without humans on board. Most spaceflight is uncrewed and conducted mainly with spacecraft such ...

as a practical endeavor began during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

with the development of operational liquid-fueled rockets. Beginning life as a weapon, the

V-2 The V2 (), with the technical name '' Aggregat-4'' (A4), was the world's first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed during the Second World War in Nazi Germany as a " ven ...

was pressed into peaceful service after the war at the United States'

White Sands Missile Range White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) is a United States Army military testing area and firing range located in the US state of New Mexico. The range was originally established in 1941 as the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range, where the Trinity t ...

as well as the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Kapustin Yar Kapustin Yar () is a Russian military training area and a rocket launch complex in Astrakhan Oblast, about 100 km east of Volgograd. It was established by the Soviet Union on 13 May 1946. In the beginning, Kapustin Yar used technology, material ...

. This led to a flourishing of missile designs setting the stage for the exploration of space. The small American

WAC Corporal The WAC Corporal was the first operational sounding rocket developed in the United States. It was an offshoot of the Corporal program, that was started by a partnership between the United States Army Ordnance Corps and the California Institut ...

rocket was evolved into the

Aerobee The Aerobee rocket was one of the United States' most produced and productive sounding rockets. Developed by the Aerojet Corporation, the Aerobee was designed to combine the altitude and launching capability of the V-2 with the cost effectiven ...

, a much more powerful

sounding rocket A sounding rocket or rocketsonde, sometimes called a research rocket or a suborbital rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight. The rockets are often ...

. Exploration of space began in earnest in 1947 with the flight of the first Aerobee, 46 of which had flown by the end of 1950. These and other rockets, both Soviet and American, returned the first direct data on air density, temperature, charged particles and magnetic fields in the Earth's upper atmosphere. By 1948, the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

had evolved the V-2 design into the

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

capable of more than in altitude. The first Viking to accomplish this feat, number four, did so 10 May 1950. The Soviet Union developed a virtual copy of the V-2 called the R-1, which first flew in 1948. Its longer-ranged successor, the R-2, entered military service in 1950. This event marked the entry of both superpowers into the post-V-2 rocketry era.

Origins and rocket development

The era of spaceflight began in 1942 with the development of the

V-2 rocket The V2 (), with the technical name ''Aggregat (rocket family), Aggregat-4'' (A4), was the world's first long-range missile guidance, guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed during the S ...

(A-4) as a

ballistic missile A ballistic missile is a type of missile that uses projectile motion to deliver warheads on a target. These weapons are powered only during relatively brief periods—most of the flight is unpowered. Short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM) typic ...

by Germany, the first vehicle capable of reaching the boundary of space (as defined by the

World Air Sports Federation The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk of a "plu ...

). On 20 June 1944, a V-2 (

MW 18014 MW 18014 was a German A-4 test rocket launched on 20 June 1944, at the Peenemünde Army Research Center in Peenemünde. It was the first man-made object to reach outer space, attaining an apogee of , well above the Kármán line that was estab ...

) was launched vertically, reaching a height of . The post-war years saw rapid development in rocket technology by both superpowers, jumpstarted by the dozens of V-2s and hundreds of German specialists that ended up in the custody of the

and the United States. The V-2, designed for carrying a warhead horizontally rather than vertical science missions, made an inefficient sounding rocket, while the wartime American

sounding rocket was too small to carry much scientific equipment. In 1946, the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

began development of its own heavy sounding rocket, the

, derived in part from the V-2. The

was developed from the WAC Corporal to loft lighter payloads. The Soviet Union began military development of the R-1, a copy of the V-2 with modifications intended to improve reliability, in 1947. Flight testing of this first Soviet-made liquid-fueled missile began on 13 September 1948, and the rocket entered military service in 1950. Also from 1947, two advanced rockets with ranges of , the German

émigré An ''émigré'' () is a person who has emigrated, often with a connotation of political or social exile or self-exile. The word is the past participle of the French verb ''émigrer'' meaning "to emigrate". French Huguenots Many French Hugueno ...

-designed G-1 (or R-10) and the Russian-designed R-2, competed for limited engineering and production staff, the latter winning out by the end of 1949 and being put into service in 1951. The draft plan for the range R-3 was approved on 7 December 1949, though it was never developed, later designs proving more useful and achievable.

Space exploration

V-2, WAC Corporal, and R-1A

Aerobee launch at sea, alt=Aerobee launch at sea The V-2s captured from Germany at the end of

were used for engineering and scientific missions by the United States and the Soviet Union. The first 25 captured V-2s were launched in the 15 months commencing 15 March 1946. By the end of 1950, more than 60 had been launched by the Americans, most of them equipped with research instruments. The first biological payloads launched to high altitude were sent on V-2s, starting with seeds and fruit flies in 1947, followed by mice and monkeys from 1948 onward. The V-2 was also used in early experiments with two-stage rockets: Project Bumper combined the V-2 first stage with the WAC Corporal as second stage. On 24 February 1949, Bumper 5 set an altitude record of . Around 10 WAC Corporals were also launched on their own in this period. The Soviet Union launched 11 captured V-2s in 1947. Three of the V-2s launched by the USSR in 1947 carried experiment packages for measuring cosmic rays at high altitude; at least one returned usable data. Two Soviet R-1As (an experimental R-1 variant that tested nose cone separation at altitude) also carried scientific equipment during test launches in 1949, but neither returned usable data.

Aerobee

First launched on 24 November 1947, the solid/liquid-fuel hybrid

quickly secured a reputation for reliability. With the development of these first generation purpose-built sounding rockets, the exploration of Earth's upper atmosphere and the nearest reaches of space began in earnest, a total of 46 Aerobee flights being launched through 1950. Aerobee flights measured the velocity and density of cosmic rays above and made high altitude measurements of the Earth's magnetic field. Cameras mounted on Aerobee rockets returned the first high quality photographs from space of sizeable regions of the Earth as well as large scale cloud formations.

Viking

Vikings 1 and 2, launched in 1949 from

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

, both suffered from premature engine cutoff due to turbine leaks, significantly reducing their maximum altitude. The improved Viking 3, launched on 9 February 1950, reached and could have gone higher. However, after 34 seconds of accurately guided flight, the rocket veered westward and had to be destroyed by

range safety In rocketry, range safety or flight safety is ensured by monitoring the flight paths of missiles and launch vehicles, and enforcing strict guidelines for rocket construction and ground-based operations. Various measures are implemented to protect ...

. On 10 May 1950, Viking 4 was launched from a site in the Pacific Ocean between

Jarvis Island Jarvis Island (; formerly known as Bunker Island or Bunker's Shoal) is an uninhabited coral island located in the South Pacific Ocean, about halfway between Hawaii and the Cook Islands. It is an Territories of the United States#Unincorporated u ...

and

Christmas Island Christmas Island, officially the Territory of Christmas Island, is an States and territories of Australia#External territories, Australian external territory in the Indian Ocean comprising the island of the same name. It is about south o ...

. The fourth Viking became the first sounding rocket ever launched from a sea-going vessel, the . This flight was perfect, reaching , more than double that reached by the earlier Vikings. Viking 5, launched on 21 November 1950, carried a vast array of radiation detectors. The rocket also carried two movie cameras to take high altitude film of the Earth all the way to its peak height of as well as

Pirani gauge The Pirani gauge is a robust thermal conductivity gauge used for the measurement of the pressures in vacuum systems. It was invented in 1906 by Marcello Pirani. Marcello Stefano Pirani was a German physicist working for Siemens & Halske which wa ...

s to measure air densities in the upper atmosphere. Viking 6, launched on 11 December, underperformed, reaching a maximum altitude of .

Launches

1942

1943

1944

1945

1946

1947

1948

1949

1950

Suborbital launch statistics (1945–1950)

By country

By rocket

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spaceflight Before 1951 20th century in spaceflight 1944 in science 1946 in science 1947 in science 1948 in science 1949 in science 1950 in science

1950 Events January * January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. * January 5 – 1950 Sverdlovsk plane crash, Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 ...