OTD In Space - November 24: 1st Aerobee Sounding Rocket Launch

On November 24, 1947, the U.S. Navy launched the first Aerobee rocket.

Aerobee was a suborbital sounding rocket designed to study Earth's atmosphere. After World War 2, the United States started reusing German V-2 rockets for this kind of research. When they started running out of V-2s, the United States constructed its own rockets that were similar but cheaper to build and to launch. In the weeks leading up to the first Aerobee mission, three test flights were launched. Those tests used a dummy version of Aerobee with a live booster to see if the two stages would separate properly. On Aerobee’s first real flight, the rocket flew about 35 miles high. Mission control cut the flight short after about 30 seconds, because Aerobee started to yaw, and they wanted to keep it from going completely out of control. More than 1,000 Aerobee rockets have launched since then, and the last one flew in January of 1985.