The first photograph of Earth
from the V‑2 rocket flight of
October 24, 1946. Source:
White Sands Missile Range/
Applied Physics Laboratory
The second flight took place on November 11 1935, this time
with a crew of two, and using helium as the lifting gas in place
of hydrogen. The mission was a tremendous success. They
ascended well into the stratosphere, eventually reaching a
height of 22,066 m (13.7 miles)—easily a world altitude record
for manned flight up until that time.
The mission gathered a wealth of scientific data, including
information on cosmic rays, ozone concentrations and the
chemical composition of the stratosphere.
Perhaps even more significantly, a series of photographs was
taken that clearly showed the curvature of the Earth and the
visible curved top of the troposphere far below.
After successfully descending, the flight was globally celebrated
and the crew, dubbed “aeronauts”, became national heroes.
Captain Albert Stevens and Captain Orvil Anderson were invited
to an audience with the US President Franklin D Roosevelt and
received numerous bravery and scientific awards.
The crew capsule from this landmark aerial expedition is today
on display at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and
Space Museum.
The V‑2 rocket flights, 1946–1950
Even greater heights were reached during the mid 1940s when
an experimental series of high‑altitude rocket flights carrying
cameras provided stunning views of our planet from the verges
of space.
BAMOS
Sep 2019
Soon after the War’s end, the United States used modified
German V‑2 rockets to investigate the atmosphere at high
altitudes, in particular using cameras to capture images of the
Earth from above 100 km (62 miles).
On 24 October 1946, scientists attached a 35 mm motion picture
camera to a V‑2 rocket that was launched into the atmosphere
above the White Sands missile range in New Mexico, USA. The
camera took photographs every five seconds from launch up
until an altitude of 105 km (65 miles) above the Earth, and these
were later retrieved from the wreckage of the V‑2 after it had
crashed back to Earth.
These images were the highest altitude from which photographs
had ever been taken, finally beating the record set by the
Explorer II balloon back in 1935. They showed stunning views of
the Earth and various cloud formations far below.
More than 1000 Earth pictures were taken from V‑2 rocket
flights between 1946 and 1950 at altitudes ranging from 105 to
160 km (65 to 100 miles) above the surface.
Clyde Holliday, the engineer who designed the camera used
in the flights, later wrote in National Geographic that the V‑2
photos showed for the first time "how our Earth would look to
visitors from another planet coming in on a spaceship."
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