On November 24, 1947, the U.S. Navy launched the first Aerobee rocket.
Aerobee was a suborbital sounding rocket designed to study Earth's atmosphere. After World War 2, the United States started reusing German V-2 rockets for this kind of research. When they started running out of V-2s, the United States constructed its own rockets that were similar but cheaper to build and to launch. In the weeks leading up to the first Aerobee mission, three test flights were launched. Those tests used a dummy version of Aerobee with a live booster to see if the two stages would separate properly. On Aerobee’s first real flight, the rocket flew about 35 miles high. Mission control cut the flight short after about 30 seconds, because Aerobee started to yaw, and they wanted to keep it from going completely out of control. More than 1,000 Aerobee rockets have launched since then, and the last one flew in January of 1985.
Aerobee was a suborbital sounding rocket designed to study Earth's atmosphere. After World War 2, the United States started reusing German V-2 rockets for this kind of research. When they started running out of V-2s, the United States constructed its own rockets that were similar but cheaper to build and to launch. In the weeks leading up to the first Aerobee mission, three test flights were launched. Those tests used a dummy version of Aerobee with a live booster to see if the two stages would separate properly. On Aerobee’s first real flight, the rocket flew about 35 miles high. Mission control cut the flight short after about 30 seconds, because Aerobee started to yaw, and they wanted to keep it from going completely out of control. More than 1,000 Aerobee rockets have launched since then, and the last one flew in January of 1985.
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TechTranscript
00:00On this day in space.
00:03On November 24th, 1947,
00:06the U.S. Navy launched the first Airobi rocket.
00:09Airobi was a suborbital sounding rocket designed to study Earth's atmosphere.
00:13After World War II,
00:15the United States started reusing German B-2 rockets for this kind of research.
00:19When they started running out of B-2s,
00:21the United States constructed its own rockets that were similar,
00:24but cheaper to build and to launch.
00:26In the weeks leading up to the first Airobi mission,
00:29three test flights were launched.
00:31Those tests used a dummy version of Airobi with a live booster
00:34to see if the two stages would separate properly.
00:37On Airobi's first real flight, the rocket flew about 35 miles high.
00:41Mission control cut the flight short after about 30 seconds
00:44because Airobi started to yaw,
00:46and they wanted to keep it from going completely out of control.
00:49More than 1,000 Airobi rockets have launched since then,
00:52and the last one flew in January of 1985.
00:55And that's what happened on this day in space.
00:59NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology