Aggregat 4. The first rocket in space.
The first successful test flight of the German Aggregat
4 (A4) ballistic missile, later known as the V-2, with the prototype number V-4, took place from Prüfstand VII in
Peenemünde on the island of Usedom, off the Baltic coast of
Germany on October 3, 1942.
It was the third test launch of the A4 rocket. The
rocket engine burned for 58 seconds. The launch was too steep
due to pitch program error, but otherwise successful. The
prototype rocket reached an altitude of 85–90 kilometers
(according to another source 84.5 kilometres), and traveled
approximately 190 kilometers downrange. It was described at
the time as the first rocket to reach the edge of space,
though not according to the modern FAI definition of the
Kármán line at 100 km altitude.
On that day, Major General Walter Dornberger, who was in command of the V-2 development program, declared in a speech at Peenemünde:
"This third day of October 1942 is the first of a new era of transportation – that of space travel..."
On June 20, 1944, the test launch of the A4, number MW 18014, from Greifswalder Oie island in the Baltic Sea, attained an apogee of 176 km. It was the first man-made object to reach outer space by the modern FAI definition of the Kármán line, and the first sub-orbital spaceflight.
MW 18014 was part of a series of vertical test launches made in June 1944 designed to gauge the rocket's behaviour in vacuum. A subsequent A4 launched as part of the same series of tests would break MW 18014's record, with an apogee of 189 km. The date of that launch is unknown because rocket scientists did not record precise dates during this phase. After the war, the World Air Sports Federation (FAI) defined the boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space to be the Kármán line at 100 km altitude.
Aggregat 4 (A4) — later known as V-2 (Vergeltungswaffen-2; English: “Vengeance Weapon 2”) — was the world's first ballistic missile. It's development began in 1938 under the leadership of Wernher von Braun (1912–1977). The rocket was 14.03 meters long, and had a maximum diameter of 1.65 meters. It had an empty mass of approximately 4,500 kilograms and 12,700–13,200 kilograms when fully loaded. It carried an explosive warhead of approximately 910 kg of amatol, a mixture of TNT and ammonium nitrate. The propellant was a 75/25 mixture of of ethanol and water with liquid oxygen as an oxidizer. The rocket was stabilized by four large fins, 4.035 meters long, with a maximum span of 3.564 meters. A small guide vane was at the outer tip of each fin, and other vanes were placed in the engine’s exhaust plume.
When launched, the rocket engine burned for 65 seconds, accelerating the rocket to 5,760 kilometers per hour on a ballistic trajectory. The maximum range of the rocket was 320 kilometers with a peak altitude between 88 and 206 kilometers, depending on the desired range.
The V-2s were mass-constructed at the Mittelwerk underground factory in Thuringia, to avoid Allied bombing, by prisoners from Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp. The first combat flights took place on September 7, 1944. Germany used the missile against England, France, the Netherlands and Belgium as a terror weapon. More than 3,200 V-2 rockets were launched against these countries. More people died manufacturing the V-2 than were killed by its deployment. 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 Nazi concentration camps prisoners died as a result of their forced participation with the production of the weapons.
After the Nazi defeat, German engineers were relocated to the United States, the United Kingdom and the USSR, where they further developed the V-2 rocket for military and civilian purposes. The V-2 rocket did not affect the outcome of the war, but it resulted in the development of the intercontinental ballistic missiles of the Cold War, which were also used for space exploration.
Wernher von Braun (in civilian dress) at Peenemünde Army Research Center, in March 1941. Credit: Deutsches Bundesarchiv
Aggregat 4 (V-2) rocket test launch. Credit: Bundesarchiv
© 2025, Andrew Mirecki
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