Awakening public interest in the United States and in Europe was manifested by publication in September 1949 of The Conquest of Space by Willy Ley. Ley featured detailed descriptions of orbital space stations and manned flights to the Moon and back as part of man's quest to conquer the frontier of space. The First Symposium on Space Flight was held 12 October 1951 at the Hayden Planetarium in New York City. Papers read at the Symposium were published in March 1952 by Collier's magazine under the title 'Man Will Conquer Space Soon.' Contributors were Wernher von Braun, Joseph Kaplan, Heinz Haber, Willy Ley, Oscar Schachter, and Fred L. Whipple. Topics ranged from manned orbiting space station) and orbiting astronomical observatories to problems of human survival in space, lunar space ventures, and questions of international law and sovereignty in space. Finally, Arthur C. Clarke's The Exploration of Space, first published in England in 1951 and a Book of the Month Club selection in America the following year, persuasively argued the case for orbital space stations and manned lunar and planetary space expeditions, popularizing the notion of space flight in general.

Russian test pilot cosmonaut, 1977-1980. Test pilot, Gromov Flight Research Institute. Selected as a cosmonaut for the Buran program in 1977 by the Gromov Flight Test Center, but the selection was not confirmed by the government commission. Died in the crash of an Mi-8 helicopter.

Fully fueled round used and attained highest altitude to that date. In addition to testing equipment the flight was used to measure upper air temperatures. V-2 reached 102 km, 1170 m/s; WAC 400 km, 2300 m/s. Provided information on ion densities in the F-region of the ionosphere.

Concept of launching of small high-performance rockets suspended from a balloon above most of the atmosphere (later called "Rockoons"), developed by Cmdr. Lee Lewis, Cmdr. G. Halvorson, S. F. Singer, and J. A. Van Allen during Aerobee firing cruise of U.S.S. Norton Sound.

Cosmic radiation, magnetic field research. Launched at 1514 GMT. A pressure valve defect resulted in the sustainer taking off without the booster; reached 6 km. Launched from vessel ACM1 Norton Sound at Atlantic Ocean Launch Site 1-3 - Latitude: 11.27 S, Longitude:82.13 W.

Launched 08:15 local time. Reached 8.9 km. Carried Solar radiation (Naval Research Lab) experiments for General Electric. The warhead section was replaced with an instrumented full-scale replica of the cylindrical GE A-4 ramjet duct planned for the Hermes B ramjet missile.

Test of separable warhead. Range achieved 200 km. Ballistic launch. Expected range 210 km. Launched at 0612 local time. The launches were first made public by Tass on March 27, 1958: 'In May 1949 a single-stage Russian rocket attained an altitude of 109 km with an instrument payload of 120 to 130 kg'.

Recognizing that rocket test ranges will exceed White Sands capability, Cape Canaveral selected for future long range flights. President Truman signed a bill providing a 5,000-mile guided-missile test range, which was subsequently established at Cape Canaveral, Fla. Negotiations with British government begin for installation of string of tracking stations in Bahamas Islands.

Test of separable warhead. Range achieved 31.9 km. Vertical launch. Expected range 22 km. Launched at 0450 local time. Carried two 85 kg Physical Measurement of Atmospheric Boundary (FIAR-1) containers, which were recovered but damaged; no science resulted

The planned IRBM's (R-3 or G-4) would use a new design high pressure cylindrical combustion chamber. This would feed a spherical mixing chamber. The German engineers worked with Glushko to build a subscale 7 tonne thrust, 60 atmosphere chamber pressure test model. Given the Russian designation ED-140, this was run 100 times between the summer of 1949 and April of 1950. 19 of these chambers would feed the chamber of the Glushko RD-110 engine slated for use in Korolev's competing R-3 rocket.

After five unpowered flights, the program was cancelled. By that time better-funded turbojet-powered fighter prototypes were already achieving the 1200 km/hr top speed of the 5. Biesnovat and Isayev would elaborate the design in unmanned form into the supersonic R-1 air-to-surface missile.

Launched 15:35 local time. Reached 133.9 km. Carried cosmic and solar radiation, temperature, pressure, ionosphere, photo experiments for Air Research and Development Command. Second V-2 flight carrying a live AF Aero Medical Laboratory monkey, Albert II. The monkey survived but died on impact.

Vietnamese pilot cosmonaut 1979-1980. Graduated from Gagarin Military Academy, Monino, 1978 Captain and fighter pilot, Vietnam Air Force. Flew many combat missions during the Vietnam War. Continued service in Vietnamese Air Force. Died in the crash of a MiG-21UTI trainer.

The awakening public interest in the scientific exploration of space was shown by the publication in September 1949 of The Conquest of Space. Featured in this book was a detailed description of a manned lunar landing and return, using the direct ascent technique.

Reacting to Russia's explosion of an atomic bomb, and the Communist victory in China's civil war, the US military begins increasing funding to the low-priority missile development programs begun in 1946. The Martin MX-771 tactical cruise missile is reinstated; additional funds are plowed into the Rascal and Snark programs; and the Corporal tactical missile is modified to carry a nuclear warhead. The Navaho aerodynamic design is frozen so that fabrication of the XSSM-A-2 flight articles can begin.

Launched 16:19 local time. Reached 4.2 km. Carried Composition, ionosphere, meteorites, solar and cosmic radiation, sky brightness, biological experiments for Air Research and Development Command. Third V-2 flight carrying a live AF Aero Medical Laboratory monkey, Albert III. The monkey survived but died on impact.

As with the American XS-1, the rocketplane was launched from a captured B-29 bomber. German pilot Wolfgang Ziese conducted all of the initial flight tests. Initial glider flights with the 346P, 346-1 aircraft were flown in 1948. The first powered flight was successful but Ziese was injured after the landing skid collapsed after a fast landing.

German aerodynamicist Albring designed the G-3 missile for the Russians. This would use a rocket-powered Groettrup-designed G-1 as the first stage. The cruise stage would have an aerodynamic layout like that of the Saenger-Bredt rocket-powered antipodal bomber of World War II. Cruising at 13 km altitude, the supersonic missile would carry a 3000 kg warhead to a range of 2900 km. This was an alternate approach to Ustinov's 3000 kg over 3000 km range missile requirement of April 1949. This design would be elaborated at Korolev's bureau into the EKR ramjet design of 1953.

The Scientific-Technical Soviet of NII-88 receives a briefing on Groettrup's G-4 IRBM design: 23.7 m long, 2.74 m diameter, 70.800 kg takeoff mass, 7000 kg empty, 3,000 kg warhead, turbine exhaust for roll control (as in Jupiter), plywood RV, lox/alcohol propellants.

The NTS (Scientific-Technical Soviet) of NII-88 met in plenary session and subjected Korolev's proposal to withering criticism. The G-4 was found to be superior. After heated discussion, the Soviet approved further development of technology for the R-3, but not the missile itself. The decisions were: an R-3A technology demonstrator would be built and flown under Project N-1 (probably to prove G-4 concepts). Under Project N-2 both the RD-110 and D-2 engines would proceed into development test in order to prove Lox/Kerosene propellant technology. Packet rocket and lightweight structure research for use in an ICBM would continue under project N-3 / T-1. Winged intercontinental cruise missile studies would continue under project N-3 / T-2. Neither the G-4 or R-3 ended up in production, but the design concepts of the G-4 led directly to Korolev's R-7 ICBM (essentially a cluster of G-4's or R-3A's) and the N1 superbooster. Work on the G-4 continued through 1952.

Launched 12:14 local time. Reached 130.6 km. Carried Composition, ionosphere, meteorites, solar radiation, sky brightness experiments for Air Research and Development Command. Last monkey, Albert IV, launched in V-2 series. The successful flight indicated no ill effects on monkey until impact of V-2.