redstone rocket
The Redstone Rocket The Redstone is a United States Army surface-to-sur�face missile that is designed to supplement artillery cannon. It can be equipped with either a nuclear or high-explosive warhead. This missile is propelled by a 78,000-pound-thrust liquid-fuel engine that gives it a range of 200 miles. It is 70 feet long, 51/2 feet in diameter, and weighs 62,-000 pounds. Top speed is 3800 miles per hour. The Redstone can be transported by air, rail, or truck and assembled in the field. It is fired from a portable launcher. This rocket served as the first stage of the space vehicles that launched Explorer I� the first United States satellite� Explorer III, and Explorer IV. The Redstone will also be used to carry our Mercury astro�nauts on short test flights into space prior to the launch�ing which will send one of them into orbit around the earth. On January 31, 1961, a souped-up version of this highly reliable rocket shot a Project Mercury capsule, with a 371/2 -pound chimpanzee named Ham aboard,155 miles into space and 420 miles out over the Atlantic Ocean at a speed of 5,000 miles per hour. Ham's trip was hailed as a big step toward manned space flights.