| THE FIRST SATELLITES | ||
Tsiolkovsky and Goddard realized early on that if a rocket could be launched out of the Earth's atmosphere and attain a high enough velocity, it would orbit the earth continuously and become an artificial satellite. To achieve that goal, a variant of the V2, named Bumper, became the first stage of a two-stage rocket. Most were launched from White Sands, New Mexico, but the need for more room led to a site being built at a remote location called Cape Canaveral, Florida. On July 24, 1950, a two-stage Bumper rocket became the first of hundreds to be launched from "The Cape." |
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