On display at the NASM is an Aerobee 150, a more sophisticated version of the rocket. An Aerobee 150 can lift a 68.1-kilogram (150-pound) payload to an altitude of 274 kilometers (170 miles). Payloads consisted of a variety of scientific experiments.
The Aerobee concept originated early in 1946 when Dr. James Van Allen, then of the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University, suggested that the Office of Naval Research contract for a rocket with these particular capabilities. The Aerojet General Corporation (then Aerojet, Inc.) was awarded the contract, with the Douglas Aircraft Corporation subcontracting for aerodynamic studies on the nose, fins, and tail cone, and for the final assembly of the rocket.
The Aerobee 150 is from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Goddard Space Flight Center.
Farside
23. Artist’s rendering of four-stage Farside sounding rocket, in launcher below balloon.
24. Rocket was fired directly through the apex of the balloon. Drawing shows the first stage falling away as second-stage rocket takes over.
Farside was a four-stage rocket launched from a balloon as an extremely high-altitude research vehicle. Achieving heights estimated at 6400 kilometers (4000 miles). Farside’s instrument payload was intended to study cosmic rays, earth’s magnetic field, certain forms of electromagnetic radiation in space, the presence of interplanetary gases, and the nature of meteoric dust.