The Redstone rocket was
largely developed by Werner von Braun and his team of German rocket scientists who
migrated to the United States after World War II and worked at the US Army Ballistic
Missile Authority (AMBA) in Huntsville, Alabama. The rocket started as a development for
an intermediate range ballistic missile in 1950, and achieved this goal in 1958. It
was first launched at Cape Canaveral in 1961 by NASA. In its original form, the Redstone
launched some of the Mercury manned flights such as MR-3 and MR-4. (shown at right).
This is the rocket that launched America in the great space race, by putting Alan B. Shepard Jr.
into orbit.
A solid fuel fourth stage was added to it and the Redstone became
the Jupiter C rocket that launched Explorer 1, America's first satellite.
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