Rocket, Liquid Fuel, Sounding, WAC Corporal
date: label: Date
content: ca. 1945-1950
name: label: Manufacturer
content: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
notes: label: Summary
content: This is the WAC-Corporal liquid-fuel sounding rocket, the U.S.'s first successful sounding rocket. Developed from 1944 at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, it could lift 25 pounds of instruments to 20 miles. The motor used nitric acid and aniline and produced 1,500 pounds of thrust. The first rocket was launched in 1945.
label: Summary
content: However, captured German V-2 rockets soon became available that could carry heavier payloads to higher altitudes. The WAC was thus little used. One was placed on top of a V-2, however, as part of the U.S.'s first experimental two-stage liquid propellant rocket series called Project Bumper. One Bumper in 1949 went up to a record 244 miles. This rocket was donated to the Smithsonian by Caltech in 1959.
label: Alternate Name
content: WAC Corporal Sounding Rocket
label: Key Accomplishment(s)
content: First Successful U.S. Sounding Rocket
label: Brief Description
content: First launched in 1945, the WAC-Corporal liquid-fuel sounding rocket could lift 11 kg (25 lbs) of instruments to 32 km (20 mi). The motor used nitric acid and aniline and produced 680 kg (1,500 lbs) of thrust.
place: label: Country of Origin
content: United States of America
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Air and Space Museum Collection
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of the California Institute of Technology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Air and Space Museum
identifier: label: Inventory Number
content: A19590009000
objectType: label: Type
content: CRAFT-Missiles & Rockets
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Materials
content: Mainly sheet steel; plastic or plexiglass cones on tips of the two white fins
label: Dimensions
content: 3-D (L x W x H) (Artifact only): 505.5 × 103.5 × 30.5cm (16 ft. 7 in. × 3 ft. 4 3/4 in. × 1 ft.)
label: Dimensions
content: 8" length for the acrylic pieces that hang from the bottom of the fins