@Mark Ollig
In August 1945, German-made V-2 rockets and their parts were brought to the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
In August 1945, German-made V-2 rockets and their parts were brought to the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
The V-2, or Vergeltungswaffe 2 (“Vengeance Weapon 2”), was the world’s first rocket-powered ballistic missile, standing 46 feet tall and weighing nearly 28,000 pounds when fully fueled.
Developed at Peenemünde in northeastern Germany by a team led by Wernher von Braun, it first flew successfully Oct. 3, 1942, and became operational in 1944.
Equipped with an internal guidance system, this supersonic weapon had a flight range of roughly 200 miles and carried an explosive warhead of about 2,200 pounds.
The V-2 plunged toward its target at around 3,400 mph.
For those curious, the V-1 (Vergeltungswaffe 1), aka “buzz bomb,” was the world’s first operational cruise missile.
Designed under engineer Robert Lusser at Fieseler, it entered service in June 1944, with a flight range of about 160 miles.
The V-1 carried a roughly 1,870-pound high-explosive warhead, and typically flew at close to 400 mph toward its target before diving in.
After WWII, the United States acquired V-2 rockets, parts, and technical documentation, shipping about 300 freight-car loads of components to the new White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico.
There, under Project Hermes, Army teams and General Electric personnel inventoried, reworked, assembled, modified, and launched V-2s for military testing and high-altitude scientific research.
In early 1946, a plan developed by Harvard University and the US Naval Research Laboratory was selected to send life from Earth into space aboard a V-2 rocket.
The V-2 flight that carried the first living animals into space was V-2 No. 20, also known as the Blossom 1 mission.
It launched from White Sands Missile Range’s Launch Complex 33 Feb. 20, 1947, under US Army oversight.
Those first living animals from Earth to reach space and return alive were . . . drum roll . . . fruit flies (yes, I was surprised too).
Fruit flies, or Drosophila melanogaster, may seem like pesky insects, but they are highly valuable for scientific research.
Scientists chose them for early spaceflights because their genetics are well-mapped, including four pairs of chromosomes, which made it easier to spot radiation-related changes after recovery.
Their rapid life cycle allows researchers to study radiation effects in both the original spacefaring fruit flies and their offspring.
By the 1940s, fruit flies were already essential to genetics research, making them a practical choice for early biological experiments.
Scientists wanted to know whether living organisms could survive exposure to radiation at very high altitudes and the violent forces of a rocket launch before humans attempted space flight.
Along with fruit flies, the V-2 payload carried plant material like corn and other seeds to track visible genetic mutations in future generations.
It also included extra seeds so scientists could study whether radiation might impact the quality of future crops.
This allowed researchers to compare the effects on both animal and plant life during the same flight.
Fruit flies were placed in an ejectable metal canister built to protect them during the V-2 flight.
This payload canister kept the insects safe from the vacuum, extreme pressure shifts, and mechanical forces during ascent, the short time at peak altitude, and the descent.
The Blossom 1 V-2 rocket reached space Feb. 20, 1947, climbing to about 68 miles above Earth in roughly three minutes, 10 seconds.
That altitude placed the rocket roughly six miles above the commonly cited 62-mile Kármán line.
Near its peak altitude, the rocket ejected the recoverable payload canister carrying the fruit flies, which I’ve nicknamed “astroflies.”
As the payload canister began its descent, a small ribbon parachute deployed first to absorb the initial deceleration and aerodynamic shock and to stabilize it in the thin upper atmosphere.
A larger parachute then opened at about 30 miles for the remainder of the descent.
Army documentation from White Sands states that the payload canister “descended for 50 minutes and, with the aid of radar, was recovered immediately.”
Using a two-stage parachute system, it drifted slowly through the thin upper atmosphere before continuing its gradual descent as the air grew thicker, making the return last about 50 minutes.
“The parachute was ejected and functioned perfectly,” Commanding Officer Lt. Col. Harold R. Turner later said.
After recovery of the payload canister, the fruit flies were examined and scientists assessed possible radiation effects.
“Analysis made by Harvard on recovered seeds and flies has shown that no detectable changes are produced by the radiation,” wrote US Naval Research Laboratory nuclear physicist Ernst H. Krause.
The flight proved that living organisms could survive a rocket launch, reach space, and return safely to Earth.
At the time, some scientists feared acceleration, vibration, or radiation might make survival impossible for living organisms during a space flight.
In 1947, fruit flies answered one important question: Could life leave Earth, reach space, and come back alive?
We learned the answer was yes.
Today, NASA continues to send fruit flies to the International Space Station for testing and observation, exploring how space affects biology over time.
NASA notes that fruit flies share many fundamental genetic and cellular characteristics with humans, with approximately 75% of human disease genes having counterparts in fruit flies.
This makes them a small yet efficient model for studying changes related to the immune system, heart function, and other bodily systems in space.
Let’s pause to acknowledge those spacefaring “astroflies,” the first living beings to journey into space and return alive.
