A Military Background

Cape Canaveral has a long association with aviation and spaceflight. During World War II (1939-1945), the U. S. Navy trained pilots there. After the war, the U. S. Army, U. S. Navy, and U. S. Air Force all used Cape Canaveral as a range for testing missiles.

In 1950 the U. S. Air Force took over the test range and set up the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. It built a row of launch pads along the coast. The first rocket launch from Cape Canaveral took place at 9:28 a. m. on July 24, 1950. The rocket, named Bumper 8, was a modified World War II V-2 rocket.

The first launch control center was very basic. It was a small wooden shack about 450 feet (137 meters) from one of the launch pads. The launch center was buffered only

О Bumper 8 was the first mis­sile launched at Cape Canaveral. The launch, shown here, took place on July 24, 1950.

A Military BackgroundПодпись: О The lights of Missile Row stretch along the shoreline at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station under a full moon. by a mound of dirt and sandbags, which would have offered little protection if a rocket had exploded on the pad. Later, a tank was used as a firing room to launch rockets.

There was so little housing at Cape Canaveral in the 1950s that most workers were obliged to live in tents. They had to deal with the local wildlife, which included mos­quitoes, alligators, and rattlesnakes.