The JPL-Ordnance Wac was the first American rocket to escape the earth's atmosphere. The technology developed here would lead to the Viking sounding rocket, the Vanguard satellite launcher, the Titan ICBM, and (via Chinese rocket experts expelled from the US in the 1950's) to the Chinese Long March family.

• First American rocket to exit earth's atmosphere

  First American rocket to escape earth's atmosphere, the JPL-Ordnance Wac, reached 50-mile height after launch from WSPG.

• 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