May 1950 - Viking 4 the first sounding rocket ever launched from a sea-going vessel

In may 1950, on the Pacific equator, the U.S.S. Norton Sound launched the most formidable missile ever fired from a ship at sea: a 50-foot, 51/2 ton Viking rocket. The huge projectile rose slowly out of a swirling cloud of flame and steam, shaking off the heavy frost condensed on its sides by the subzer cold of the liquid oxygen it carried to burn its alcohol. In 30 seconds the Viking was only a speck of flame in the clear sky. At the end of 74 seconds, when its fuel ran out, it was climbing at 3.500 mph and had sufficient momentum to coast vertically to a height of 106.4 miles - a record for single stage american rockets and a close second to the 114-mile altitude reached by the much bulkier german V-2. During the Viking's flight a battery of instruments packed into its war head radioed back 50 kinds of data, some about rocket's performance, some about cosmic-ray activity and the upper atmosphere. Since the announced purpose of the launching was to obtain such information, the scientists aboard had reason to be pleased. The Navy members of the expedition were happy too: they had proved for the first time that big rockets, capable of carrying A-bombs several hundred miles, could be launched from the deck of a ship.