Junior Rangers In Space

On January 25, 1962, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) formally assigned the task of developing the Saturn V Launch Vehicle, a three-stage rocket designed for a lunar landing mission, to the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, with launch responsibility committed to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

In 1958, amidst a growing space race with the Russians, President Eisenhower called for a civilian space agency. Under Eisenhower's leadership, NASA was born. Explore this story further in this article.

Site Summit, near Anchorage, Alaska, is an exceptionally well preserved Cold war-era Nike-Hercules missile installation and an important physical representation of U.S. military strategy during the Cold War. During World War II the U.S. Army recognized that advancements in Germany's aircraft and missile technology had made America's existing conventional artillery obsolete.

Interest in rockets goes back to ancient times when the Chinese used rockets that burned solid fuel for entertainment and for warfare. The British and other Europeans used rockets in the 19th century for military purposes. They were also used for peaceful purposes such as for launching life-saving equipment from shore into the water to rescue sailors.

Air Force Facility Missile Site 8 (571-7) Military Reservation in Green Valley, Arizona, is the sole remaining Titan II Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) complex of the 54 that were "on alert" during the Cold War between 1963 and 1987. The Titan II missiles were constructed to survive a first strike nuclear attack from the Soviet Union and to retaliate. This site is preserved and open to the public today as the Titan Missile Museum.

The Nike defense system was a significant aspect of both civilian life and military planning during the Cold War era in the United States. Nike missiles were radar guided, supersonic antiaircraft missiles. In keeping with the U.S. doctrine of "deterrence," planners hoped that systems like the Nike would make a direct attack on the continental United States so costly as to be futile.

The White Sands V-2 Launching Site, or Launch Complex 33, was developed specifically to accommodate V-2 rocket tests at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The launch complex has two important structures: the old Army Blockhouse and the launching crane, also known as the Gantry Crane.

At the end of World War II the Navy established the US Naval Ordnance Test Facilities at Topsail Island, North Carolina, for Operation Bumblebee, a top-secret, experimental project to develop and test ramjet missiles, which advanced the Nation's jet aircraft and missile programs.

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida has played an important role in the space program and missile testing in the United States. In 1947 Cape Canaveral Air Force Station was selected as the site for a U.S. Missile Testing Range. The first missile, a German V-2 rocket, was launched on July 14, 1950. During the following three years, facilities were constructed for the testing of cruise-type missile weapons including the Matador, Snark and Bomark.

The Redstone Test Stand is the oldest static firing facility at the Marshall Space Flight Center, in Huntsville, Alabama. Constructed by the Ordnance Guided Missile Center at Redstone Arsenal and transferred to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1960, the Redstone Test Stand was the first test stand in the United States to accommodate the entire launch vehicle for static tests.