Redstone Rocket

The Redstone rocket was used to launch the first U.S. manned suborbital flights during the Mercury Program. It had been developed by the US Army as a weapon with a range of 322 km (200 mi). The original Redstone was 21 m (69 ft) tall and used liquid oxygen and ethyl alcohol. The guidance was by an inertial system acting upon graphite exhaust vanes and small aerodynamic rudders. Some of them were built under the technical direction of Wernher von Braun.

The Redstone was used as the basis for the Jupiter and Juno rockets, the first of which launched Explorer 1, the first U.S. satellite. When it carried the Mercury capsule and escape tower, the Redstone was 25 m (83 ft) tall.