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Three
types of rockets are displayed here:
- A rocket used as a
missile is a weapon that delivers an explosive warhead to a target.
- A sounding rocket
carries scientific instruments into the upper atmosphere.
- A launch vehicle sends
spacecraft into Earth orbit or beyond.
These
rockets played important roles in rocketry research, national defense,
or space exploration.
V-2
(black and white patterned rocket)--developed by the German army
for use in World War II, inspired large-scale rocketry in the United
States and Soviet Union, and set the stage for long-range ballistic
missiles.
WAC
Corporal (small white rocket with black top)--high-altitude U.S. Army test
rocket, used from 1945 to 1950, representing the state of American
rocketry at the time of the German V-2.
Viking (white
rocket with silver top)--U.S.
Navy refinement of V-2, used in the late 1940s and early 1950s as
a sounding rocket and test vehicle for Project Vanguard.
Jupiter-C (large
white rocket marked UE)--placed
the first U.S. satellite, Explorer 1, into orbit on January 31,
1958.
Vanguard (tall
black and silver rocket)--boosted
the second U.S. satellite, Vanguard 1, into space on March 17, 1958.
Aerobee
150 (slim
gray and black rocket)--one
of a family of sounding rockets used from 1947 to 1985 for upper
atmosphere research.
Scout-D
(tall white rocket marked United States)--used by NASA and other
customers from 1961 through 1994 to launch small scientific satellites.
Minuteman
III (large
green rocket)--an
intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and U.S. strategic weapon
since 1970.
In
addition to the rockets, two jet-powered cruise missiles hang overhead:
 Other
exhibits about rockets are located in the Museum's How Things Fly, Rocketry and Space Flight, and
Milestones of Flight
galleries.
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