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V-4
Mission type	Test launch
Operator	Wehrmacht
Apogee	84.5 km (52.5 miles)
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	V-4
Spacecraft type	A-4
Manufacturer	Mittelwerk GmbH
Launch mass	12,500 kg
Start of mission
Launch date	3 October 1942
Launch site	Peenemünde Army Research Center
End of mission
Disposal	Impact
Destroyed	3 October 1942

V-4 was the mostly-successful maiden spaceflight of the Aggregat 4 rocket, later known as Vergeltungswaffe 2 (V-2). The launch occurred on the afternoon of 3 October 1942 and the rocket set a speed record of Mach 4, reached an apogee of 84.5 km (52.5 mi), thereby becoming the first artificial object to reach both the mesosphere and the thermosphere, surpassing the apogee of 42.3 km (26.3 mi) set by the Paris gun in 1918.^[1]^[2]^: 164

Background

The A-4 was envisioned in 1936 to be the successor to Wernher von Braun's 2.9kN A-2 and the Siemens 14.7kN A-3 rockets.^[3] The A-4 had a thrust at 25kN, with a longer range and higher apogee. After the failed A-3 tests in Operation Lighthouse nearly derailed the Aggregat program, the German Army

The Rocket

Launch

Breaking the speed of sound

Apogee

At the time, the V-4 launch was considered the first time a man-made object reached outer space ("Geburtstag der Raumfahrt" ("Birthday of spaceflight")). In 1960, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) defined a boundary for space at 100 km (62 mi) (approximately the highest possible altitude where an aircraft can fly at less than orbital velocity in order not to stall) while the United States' Air Force, NASA and Federal Aviation Administration consider 50 mi (80 km) the space boundary, the lower mesopause. The V-4 launch satisfied the present-day American definition, while it didn't cross the FAI's 100-km-line. The 100-km-boundary was established much later however, and the V-4 trajectory did reach the Kármán altitude range (83 km (52 mi) ~ 100 km (62 mi)^[4]), of which the 100-kilometer boundary is simply a round-number approximation.

Aftermath

That evening, Walter Dornberger declared in a speech at Peenemunde,

This third day of October, 1942, is the first of a new era in transportation, that of space travel...^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b Dornberger, Walter (1952). V-2: Hitler's Space Age Missle – The secret weapon that almost changed the course of World War II (Bantam ed.). Bantam Books (published 1979). p. 17. ISBN 9780553126600. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
^ Neufeld, Michael J. (1995). The rocket and the Reich: Peenemünde and the coming of the ballistic missile era. New York: Free Press. ISBN 978-0-02-922895-1.
^ "V-2 Missile | National Air and Space Museum". airandspace.si.edu. Retrieved 2024-03-03.
^ https://scholar.smu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1126&context=jalc

[Dornberger-1] Dornberger, Walter (1952). V-2: Hitler's Space Age Missle – The secret weapon that almost changed the course of World War II (Bantam ed.). Bantam Books (published 1979). p. 17. ISBN 9780553126600. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)

[Neufeld-2] Neufeld, Michael J. (1995). The rocket and the Reich: Peenemünde and the coming of the ballistic missile era. New York: Free Press. ISBN 978-0-02-922895-1.

[smithsonv2-3] "V-2 Missile | National Air and Space Museum". airandspace.si.edu. Retrieved 2024-03-03.

[4] ttps://scholar.smu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1126&context=jalc

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