Missile Delivery

The first two rockets to be launched from Cape Canaveral, Bumper 7 and Bumper 8, arrive at the gate of the Long Range Proving Ground after a cross-country haul from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico in early 1950. Image courtesy Air Force Space & Missile Museum.

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First Gantry

The Cape's first mobile launch tower was nothing more than painters' scaffolding on wheels. Workers climbed up the pipes to reach the upper parts of the rocket. A later launch tower was adapted from an oil derrick and called a gantry, named for the man who thought up the idea, Mr. Gantry. No one has a record of his first name. Image courtesy Air Force Space & Missile Museum.

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Little Protection

The Launch Control Center for Bumper 8 was a small wooden shack covered with a layer of felt and protected by a mound of dirt that offered very little protection from an exploding rocket just a few hundred feet away. Image courtesy Air Force Space & Missile Museum.

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Aerial Scene

In this aerial view of Launch Complex 3 at Cape Canaveral, a Bumper rocket and its gantry is in the center, surrounded by trucks. The dark thin line running to the lower right corner of the image is a cable trench leading to the "blockhouse." Image courtesy Air Force Space & Missile Museum.

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Nearly Ready

In this rare color image, Bumper 8 sits on its launch pad just days away from its liftoff. The platforms atop the scaffolding allowed workers to install and check out the WAC Corporal upper stage atop the German V-2 missile. Image courtesy Air Force Space & Missile Museum.

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We Have Liftoff

Bumper 8 roars to life at 9:28 a.m. Eastern Time on July 24, 1950. The mission lasted just a few minutes and didn't work completely as planned when the upper stage broke up after separating from the V-2 first stage about 10 miles up. SPACE.com image from an Air Force Space & Missile Museum video.

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History is Made

One of Cape Canaveral's most historic photos shows Bumper 8 lifting off in the background as a small group of news media record the event while standing near the "blockhouse" about 400 feet from the pad. Image courtesy Air Force Space & Missile Museum.