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1st Cape Canaveral launch...



Item # 578711

July 25, 1950

THE DETROIT FREE PRESS, Michigan, July 25, 1950 

* Bumper 8 rocket launch...  V-2 & WAC Corporal 
* Very 1st for Cape Canaveral in Florida 

This 22 page newspaper has a two column headline on the front page:
"Rocket Zooms Up at 2,700 MPH" with photo of the takeoff (see photos).

This was the very 1st rocket launch from Cape Canaveral Florida. A historic NASA related item.

Other news of the day with much on the Korean War.  Small binding holes along the spine, otherwise good condition.

wikipedia notes: After a July 1946 suggestion by Colonel Holger N. Toftoy to combine the V-2 rocket and Wac Corporal, the US Bumper Program was inaugurated on June 20, 1947:

    * to investigate launching techniques for a two-stage missile and separation of the two stages at high velocity,
    * to conduct limited investigation of high-speed high-altitude phenomena, and
    * to attain velocities and altitudes higher than ever reached.

Over-all responsibility for the Bumper program was given to the General Electric Company and were included in the Hermes project, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory was assigned responsibility for the theoretical investigations required, the design of the second stage and basic design of the separation system. The Douglas Aircraft Company was assigned responsibility for fabrication of the second stage and detail design and fabrication of the special V-2 rocket parts required. The program was officially concluded in July 1950 after 8 launches.

Six Bumper launches, as well as other V-2 test launches, were from White Sands Proving Grounds. In 1949, the Joint Long Range Proving Ground was established at Cape Canaveral on the east coast of Florida. The July 24, 1950 Bumper 8 launch became the first of hundreds of launches from "the Cape."

Category: The 20th Century