Nike-Asp ship-launched sounding rocket. Nike-Asp test flights from Navy LSD Point Defiance near Puka Island reached 250,000 m, the highest altitude ever reached by a ship-launched rocket, in preliminary tests for use in IGY solar eclipse studies.

• Nike-Asp reaches 800,000 feet.

  Nike-Asp test flight from Navy LSD Point Defiance near Puka Island reached 800,000 feet, the highest altitude ever reached by ship-launched rocket, in preliminary test of Nike-Asp for use in IGY solar eclipse studies.

• First NIKE-ASP.

  First of NIKE-ASP sounding rockets to provide geophysical information on wind activity between 50 and 150 miles high was launched successfully from NASA Wallops Station.

• Nike-Asp sodium vapor release test.

  Nike-Asp sounding rocket fired from NASA Wallops Station emitted sodium vapor at 50-mile altitude to 150 miles, revealing powerful windshear effects.

• Second sodium-vapor-trail experiment by Nike-Asp.

  Second sodium-vapor-trail experiment in Nike-Asp launch from Wallops Island was not successful.

• 17 - Emme, Eugene M, Aeronautics and Astronautics: An American Chronology of Science and Technology in the Exploration of Space 1915-1960, NASA, 1961. HTML when accessed: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/timeline.html