On this day! Oct. 3, 1942: 1st successful test launch of the German A4 rocket (V-2)

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On Oct. 3, 1942, Germany did the first-ever successful test launch of a ballistic missile.

On Oct. 3, 1942, Germany did the first-ever successful test launch of a ballistic missile. This missile was officially named Aggregat 4 (A4) but more commonly known as the V-2. The V-2 was designed by the famous German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, and it proved to be a super deadly weapon during World War II.

The launch of the first V-2 rocket. (Image credit: German Federal Archives)

The rocket launched from an island off the Baltic coast of Germany called Peenemünde and reached an altitude of 52.5 miles (84.5 kilometers) before safely landing right on target 118 miles (190 km) away.

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Hanneke Weitering
Hanneke Weitering
Contributing expert

Hanneke Weitering is a multimedia journalist in the Pacific Northwest reporting on the future of aviation at FutureFlight.aero and Aviation International News and was previously the Editor for Spaceflight and Astronomy news here at Space.com. As an editor with over 10 years of experience in science journalism she has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. Hanneke joined the Space.com team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos. 

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