On February 24, 1949 a high altitude test vehicle called Bumper WAC launched from White Sands Proving Ground. It reached a record altitude of two hundred and fifty miles- the "first recorded man-made object to reach extraterrestrial space." This record held until 1957. Its first stage was a V-2 (German A-4)rocket, the warhead replaced by a launching compartment. After the V-2 shut down, there was a high altitude "bump," which provided the name for the rocket. The photo shows the second stage, a modified WAC Corporal sounding rocket, mounted in the nose cone. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory was responsible for design study, development, and testing of the Bumper WAC in cooperation with General Electric and Douglas Aircraft, for the Army Ordnance Department. Bumper WAC was the world's first large two-stage liquid propellant rocket.
NASA
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