Modified V-2 rocket
October 1946 V-2 rocket launch The first photo of the
Earth above the
Kármán line , taken with a motion picture camera aboard the V-2 No. 13.
Launch 24 October 1946; 77 years ago (24 October 1946 ) Pad White Sands Missile Range Outcome Success Apogee 65 mi (105 km) Serial no. 13
The V-2 No. 13 [ 1] was a modified V-2 rocket that became the first object to take a photograph of the Earth from outer space .[ 2] [ 3] Launched on 24 October 1946,[ 4] at the White Sands Missile Range in White Sands, New Mexico , the rocket reached a maximum altitude of 65 mi (105 km).[ 1] [ 5]
Flight
Universal newsreel about the launch
The famous photograph was taken with an attached DeVry 35 mm black-and-white motion picture camera .[ 3] [ 6] The flight was an addition to the Hermes program which had been ongoing since 1944. Rocket V-2 No.13 was assembled and launched by General Electric company with both captured German components and re-manufactured ones.[ 1]
See also
References
^ a b c White, L. (September 1952), Final Report, Project Hermes V-2 Missile Program , vol. Report No. R52A0510, Schenectady, N.Y.: General Electric Company, retrieved 18 October 2016
^ Air and Space article with photos
^ a b Fraser, Lorence (1985). "High Altitude Research at the Applied Physics Laboratory in the 1940s" (PDF) . Johns Hopkins APL Technical Digest . 6 (1): 92–99. Retrieved 18 October 2016 .
^ "Compendium of Meteorological Space Programs, Satellites, and Experiments" (PDF) . NASA . March 1988. p. 10. Retrieved 22 October 2017 .
^ White Sands Missile Range Fact Sheet
^ Beegs, Jr., William (30 July 2015). "Upper Air Rocket Summary 13" . Archived from the original on 18 October 2016. Retrieved 18 October 2016 .