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Aerobee sounding rocket was developed by the Aerojet Engineering Corp.
Original design and development of Aerobee sounding rocket begun when contract was given to Aerojet Engineering Corp.
Dummy firing, no upper-air research experiment. First complete Aerobee rocket was fired to a height of 190,000 feet from White Sands Proving Ground, N. Mex.
Photography research. Launched at 1441 local time. Reached 112.7 km. Two separate rockets fired from White Sands, one a V-2 which reached an altitude of 87 km, the other a Navy Aerobee which reached an altitude of 112.7 km, carried cameras which photographed the curvature of the earth.
Solar radiation, pressure, temperature research. Launched at 1837 local time. Reached 96.6 km.
Cosmic radiation, solar radiation, pressure, temperature, ionosphere research. Launched at 2317 local time. Reached 96.6 km.
Cosmic radiation, solar radiation research. Launched at 1621 local time. Reached 88.5 km.
Solar radiation, temperature, photography research. Launched at 1520 local time. Reached 96 km. First firing of USAF Aerobee research rocket (RTV-A-1a) at Holoman AFB, the development of which was initiated earlier in the year.
Composition research. Launched at 1132 local time. Reached 64.9 km.
Composition research. Launched at 1716 local time. Reached 60 km.
Solar radiation, pressure, temperature, photography research. Launched at 1010 local time. Reached 0.3 km.
Cosmic radiation, pressure, temperature research. Launched at 1614 local time. Reached 87.6 km.
Solar radiation, sky brightness research. Launched at 1343 local time. Reached 3.2 km.
Temperature, winds research. Launched at 2106 local time. Reached 83.9 km.
Temperature, winds research. Launched at 1004 local time. Failure.
Pressure, temperature research. Launched at 1126 local time. Reached 108.2 km.
Temperature, winds research. Launched at 0210 local time. Reached 77.8 km.
Biological research. Launched at 1139 local time. Reached 61.2 km. The first Aerobee research rocket containing a biomedical experiment (monkey - name unknown).
Solar radiation, airglow research. Launched at 1711 local time. Reached 88.5 km.
Temperature, winds research. Launched at 1818 local time. Reached 6.4 km.
Biological research. Launched at 0931 local time. Reached 70.8 km. USAF made first successful recovery of animals from a rocket flight when an instrumented monkey (Yorick aka Albert VI) and 11 mice survived an Aerobee flight to an altitude of 70.8 km from Holloman AFB.
Sky brightness research. Launched at 0745 local time. Failure.
Cosmic radiation, solar radiation research. Launched at 1000 local time. Reached 81.3 km.
Cosmic radiation, solar radiation research. Launched at 0630 local time. Reached 127.8 km.
Solar radiation research. Launched at 0842 local time. Reached 91.8 km.
Solar radiation research. Launched at 0759 local time. Reached 126 km.
Cosmic radiation, solar radiation research. Launched at 0644 local time. Reached 127 km.
Biological research. Launched at 0818 local time. Reached 26.1 km. Air Force Aerobee rocket placed an aeromedical payload containing two Phillipine monkeys (Pat and Mike) and two mice to an altitude of 26.1 km, which were recovered unharmed and without apparent ill effect.
Ionosphere research. Launched at 1153 local time. Altitude not reported; possible failure.
Composition, cosmic radiation research. Launched at 0009 local time. Reached 137.3 km.
Temperature, winds research. Launched at 0319 local time. Reached 107.8 km.
Density research. Launched at 1230 local time. Reached 111.1 km.
Sky brightness, day airglow research. Launched at 0704 local time. Reached 114.3 km.
Sky brightness, day airglow research. Launched at 0847 local time. Reached 114.3 km.
Lyman alpha, solar limb darkening research. Launched at 1058 local time. Reached 138.4 km.
Nitric oxide attempt to produce sporadic E research. Launched at 1415 local time. Reached 95 km.
Nitric oxide attempt to recombine atomic oxygen research. Launched at 0145 local time. Reached 106.2 km.
Solar spectrum and atmospheric composition research. Launched at 0556 local time. Reached 2.4 km.
Pressure, temperature, density research. Launched at 0240 local time. Reached 145 km.
Sodium emission research. Launched at 0557 local time. Reached 68 km.
Sodium emission research. Launched at 2230 local time. Reached 151 km.
Aerobee upper air research rocket developed by the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins, and first fired on September 25, 1947, completed 165 successful firings to date.
USAF successfully launched pellets at a speed faster than 15 km/sec (some 3.5 km/sec faster than the velocity necessary to escape from the earth) by an Aerobee rocket to a height of 56 km; the nose section then ascended to a height of 87 km where shaped charges blasted the pellets into space. It is claimed that the Superschmidt Telescope at Sacremento Peak photographed the trajectory with a rotating shutter. These little metal pellets would therefore be the first objects to be shot into interplanetary space, months before the first launch to escape velocity (Luna 1, January 1959). But also see August 1957 nuclear test that may have blasted a manhole cover to escape velocity.
Aerobee 150-A, a new type, fired from new launch tower at Wallops Station, reached an altitude of 140 km and achieved rocket performance objectives as well as micrometeorite impact counts.
NASA Aerobee research rocket with University of Michigan payload shot to 406-km altitude from Wallops Station.
The first rocket carried a Naval Research Laboratory and University of Maryland payload to a 179-km altitude to flight test a design verification unit of the high-resolution spectroheliograph planned for use on the ATM. The second rocket carried an American Science and Engineering, Inc., payload to a 150-km altitude to obtain high-resolution x-ray pictures of active regions of the Sun during solar flare and general x-ray emission of solar corona. The rocket and instrumentation performed satisfactorily, but the payload of the first rocket failed to separate, thus preventing functioning of the parachute recovery system.
The rocket carried a Naval Research Laboratory payload to 187.9-km altitude to record photographically 18 extreme ultraviolet spectra of solar photosphere, chromosphere, and corona, using a flight design verification unit of the high-resolution spectrograph planned for ATM-A and ATM-B. Rocket and instruments performed satisfactorily.
The rockets achieved expected performance, solar pointing systems functioned properly, payloads were successfully recovered, and preliminary results appeared excellent. The information obtained by the rocket flights on solar emission intensity, filter performance, film response, and exposure time would be available in time to provide a useful and effective feedback into the ATM instruments development program.