• A rocket taking off from its launch pad. The rocket is a light color and looks to have just left the ground. Smoke bellows up from below the rocket.
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    Viking

    The Viking was the U.S. Navy’s refinement of the V-2. It was used in the late 1940s and early 1950s as a sounding rocket and test launch vehicle for Project Vanguard, which sought to launch the first artificial satellite into low Earth orbit. This photo shows the launch of the Viking No. 9 sounding rocket on December 15, 1952 from White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico. (Smithsonian Institution) 

  • A rocket taking off from its launch pad. The rocket is a light color and looks to have just left the ground. Smoke bellows up from below the rocket.

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SI-88-10518

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Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum

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Smithsonian Institution

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