Science: V-2 Day

In May, the sky over New Mexico is immaculately blue. On May 8, that clear blue sky will be gashed by a dirty grey-white smoke trail. The first German-American V-2 rocket, a mongrel fabricated by U.S. engineers, Army ordnance men and German scientists from odds & ends of captured German V-2s, will be launched from the White Sands (N.M.) Army Ordnance Proving Ground. If the experts have figured correctly (see diagram), the rocket may be expected to zoom faster and higher than any projectile has yet flown, with the possible exception of a few wartime German V-2s. If the Army knows where the monster is going to crash land, it is not telling.

V-2 day should give scientists a good line on the ionosphere—composition and density of its gases, temperature at the upper levels, possibly the incidence and effect of cosmic rays. Such information will be relayed to the ground by radio telemeters.

The Army has 25 V2s ready for assembly at White Sands and plans to launch them on a schedule of one a week. They should gradually push to higher altitudes —ordnance men have their sights on 120 miles—and rapidly expand man’s knowledge of his world.