A Bumper 8 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral on this date in 1950, the first launch from what would later become the Kennedy Space Center. The rocket was a combination of a German V-2 rocket used during World War II and a WAC Corporal sounding rocket. The goal was to test high-velocity, two-stage separation, as well as to attain high altitudes. The launch site was known simply as the Long Range Proving Ground, and in the decades to come, hundreds of launches would take place from Cape Canaveral, transforming the area during a period known as the “Space Age.”
~Florida Historical Society
