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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, about the height of the modern 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 the USA created NASA




































in apod.nasa.gov/apod