NASA Solarsystem Collection

First Launch

A new chapter in space flight began in July 1950 with the launch of the first rocket from Cape Canaveral , Florida: the Bumper 2. Shown above, Bumper 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 modern Space Shuttles fly today.

Launched under the direction of the General Electric Company, Bumper 2 was used primarily for testing rocket systems and for research on the upper atmosphere . Bumper 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 .

*Image Credit*: NASA

07.24.1950

Solar System Exploration

SSE

Space

NASA

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

JPL

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Planets

Earth

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Florida

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)

1958

July 1950

07-24-1950

1958

1950

SPD-SLRSY-385

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