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BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — Bumper 8 successfully lifted off on July 24, 1950, at Launch Complex 3, at what was known as the Long Range Proving Ground. That was 75 years ago.
What You Need To Know
- Thursday marks the 75th anniversary of the successful liftoff of Bumper 8
- It was the first launch from the cape launch complex
- Some compare that first launch to a bottle rocket next to current technology
“It’s a momentous day. It all started with Bumper 8,” Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum Director James Draper said.
The first 2 stage rocket set the tone for thousands of launches in the future.
A captured World War II era V-2 rocket served as the first stage.
With Bumper 8’s launch, the space race was born.
“And what were they doing with it, they were testing staging out here. Staging is essential to all the launches that are occurring now from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, and this is 1950, and with Bumper 8 they actually had a successful staging at high velocity,” said Draper.
A special display at the Sands History Museum commemorates the first cape launch 75 years ago.
A display commemorates the 75th anniversary of the Bumper 8 launch from the Cape (Spectrum News/Greg Pallone)
Bumper 8 stood just 60 feet tall and 5 1/2 feet in diameter. Some call it a bottle rocket compared to today’s technology.
But despite just a 2-minute, 200-mile downrange flight, Bumper 8 cemented itself in space lore as the first launch from the Atlantic Coast.
“It really wasn’t that long ago, space has advanced so quickly over such a short period of time,” Draper said. “And the way that technology is advancing today, at almost an exponential rate, I can’t even fathom what the next 75 years is going to look like.”
The U.S. government wanted to put a new missile range in California, but the Mexican government wouldn’t permit ground flight stations in their country.
The second choice was Cape Canaveral, where Bumper 8 began 75 years of Space Coast launches so far.
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Greg Pallone
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