* Astronomy

BUMPER WAC Corporal Round 5 was launched on the 24th February, 1949, from the White Sands launch site.

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BUMPER  WAC  CORPORAL  Round  5  was  the  first missile to be  used  to  measure  temperatures  at  extreme  altitudes, carried  telemetry  which  transmitted  to  ground  stations technical  information  concerning  conditions  encountered during  flight,  and  demonstrated  feasibility  of  separation of  two-stage  rockets  at very  high  altitudes.  This  was the  first  time  radio  equipment  had  ever  been  operated  at such  extreme  altitudes.  Round  5  attained  a  speed  of 5,150  miles  per  hour  and  an  altitude of  about  244  miles, the  greatest velocity  and  highest  altitude  ever  reached by  a  man-made  object,  with  the  latter  record  awaiting WAC'S  lineal  descendant,  AEROBEE,  to  break  the  altitude record  at a  much  later  date.
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Test-firing of the V-2 rocket began on the 16th March, 1942.

The V-2 rocket (German: Vergeltungswaffe 2, i.e. reprisal weapon 2), technical name Aggregat-4 (A4), was a ballistic missile that was developed at the beginning of the Second World War in Germany, specifically targeted at London and later Antwerp.
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'Bumper' set Cape's stage 60 years ago

A captured German V-2 missile topped with a U.S. Army upper stage rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral 60 years ago today, marking the first launch from Florida's Space Coast.
The Bumper 8 mission only lasted about two minutes. The 62-foot rocket flew a relatively flat trajectory to test stage separation at high velocity -- a critical capability for cruise missiles then under development.
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