page_title: V-2 rocket
section_title: Testing
hierarchical_section_title: V-2 rocket / Technical details / Testing
caption_attribution_description: Deutsches Museum de Munich Vue en coupe du moteur (2) Photo Jean-Patrick Donzey
context_page_description: The V-2, with the technical name Aggregat 4, was the world's first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed during the Second World War in Germany as a "vengeance weapon", assigned to attack Allied cities as retaliation for the Allied bombings against German cities. The V-2 rocket also became the first artificial object to travel into space by crossing the Kármán line with the vertical launch of MW 18014 on 20 June 1944.
  Research into military use of long-range rockets began when the studies of graduate student Wernher von Braun attracted the attention of the German Army. A series of prototypes culminated in the A-4, which went to war as the V-2. Beginning in September 1944, over 3,000 V-2s were launched by the German Wehrmacht against Allied targets, first London and later Antwerp and Liège. According to a 2011 BBC documentary, the attacks from V-2s resulted in the deaths of an estimated 9,000 civilians and military personnel, and a further 12,000 forced laborers and concentration camp prisoners died as a result of their forced participation in the production of the weapons.
context_section_description: The first successful test flight was on 3 October 1942, reaching an altitude of 84.5 kilometres (52.5 miles). On that day Walter Dornberger declared in a speech at Peenemünde:
  This third day of October, 1942, is the first of a new era in transportation, that of space travel...¹⁷
  Two test launches were recovered by the Allies: the Bäckebo rocket, the remnants of which landed in Sweden on 13 June 1944, and one recovered by the Polish resistance on 30 May 1944 from Blizna and transported to the UK during Operation Most III. The highest altitude reached during the war was 174.6 kilometres (108.5 miles) (20 June 1944). Test launches of V-2 rockets were made at Peenemünde, Blizna and Tuchola Forest, and after the war, at Cuxhaven by the British, White Sands Proving Grounds and Cape Canaveral by the U.S., and Kapustin Yar by the USSR.
  Various design issues were identified and solved during V-2 development and testing:
  To reduce tank pressure and weight, high flow turbopumps were used to boost pressure.
  A short and lighter combustion chamber without burn-through was developed by using centrifugal injection nozzles, a mixing compartment, and a converging nozzle to the throat for homogeneous combustion.
  Film cooling was used to prevent burn-through at the nozzle throat.
  Relay contacts were made more durable to withstand vibration and prevent thrust cut-off just after lift-off.
  Ensuring that the fuel pipes had tension-free curves reduced the likelihood of explosions at 1,200–1,800 m (4,000–6,000 ft).
  Fins were shaped with clearance to prevent damage as the exhaust jet expanded with altitude.
  To control trajectory at liftoff and supersonic speeds, heat-resistant graphite vanes were used as rudders in the exhaust jet.
caption: A sectioned V-2 engine on display at the Deutsches Museum, Munich (2006).
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