Whose Edge of Space
Wikipedia's "On this day" for 3 October: in 1942 came "the first successful test of the German V-2 rocket, the world's first ballistic missile and first man-made item to achieve sub-orbital spaceflight". That day's rocket, V-4, reached 84.5 km. Whether it went to space depends on whose line you use.
The V-4 arc is a toy: a vacuum parabola over flat ground, fitted to the two numbers the records give, 84.5 km up and 190 km downrange. The grey dashed arc is the same launch speed aimed at 45°. The real rocket burned for 58 seconds and flew through air. MW 18014 went straight up and came back down.
Which flight was first
V-4, on 3 October 1942, reached 84.5 km. The US Air Force, NASA and the FAA count 50 miles, 80.5 km, as the edge of space, and V-4 crossed it. The FAI's line, set in 1960, is 100 km, and V-4 stayed below it. Wikipedia's own V-4 article says both things.
The first V-2 above 100 km was MW 18014, launched straight up on 20 June 1944. It reached 176 km. Wikipedia's V-2 article says that with this launch the V-2 "became retroactively the first artificial object to travel into space", by the 100 km line. So the blurb is true of the V-2 as a type. Read as a claim about the flight of 3 October, it holds only by the American line.
"Too steep"
Wikipedia's list of V-2 test launches says V-4 flew "too steep due to pitch program error". The two numbers agree with that. In the toy model a shell's top height is a quarter of its range times the tangent of its launch angle. For 84.5 km up and 190 km out, the angle is , well above the 45° that gives the most range. At the same speed, 45° gives out and up. The error bought height and cost range.
Smaller checks
| Claim | Source | |
|---|---|---|
| V-4 article infobox: manufacturer "Mittelwerk GmbH" | Wikipedia, Mittelwerk: the company got its war contract on 19 October 1943, after the RAF bombed Peenemünde in August 1943. That is a year after V-4 flew. The V-2 article puts 150–200 test models at Peenemünde. | too late |
| Altitude "85 – 90 km" | That is Wikipedia's list of test launches. Its V-2 and V-4 articles both give 84.5 km, citing Neufeld (1995). | disagree |
| Range 190 km, burn 58 s | List of V-2 test launches | one source |
What it was for
That evening at Peenemünde, as Walter Dornberger recalled it in his 1952 memoir, he declared the day "the first of a new era in transportation, that of space travel".
The rocket went into service as a weapon. Wikipedia's V-2 article, citing a 2011 BBC documentary, says V-2 attacks killed an estimated 9,000 people. A further 12,000 forced labourers and concentration-camp prisoners died building it. The Mittelwerk tunnels drew their prisoners from Mittelbau-Dora, where, by the same article, 20,000 died.
What stands on what
| Item | Source |
|---|---|
| The blurb | Wikipedia, Selected anniversaries/October 3 |
| 84.5 km; US and FAI lines; 1960 | Wikipedia, V-4 (rocket launch) and V-2 rocket, citing Neufeld, The Rocket and the Reich (1995), and the FAI |
| "Too steep", 190 km, 58 s, "85 – 90 km" | Wikipedia, List of V-2 test launches |
| MW 18014, 176 km, 20 June 1944 | Wikipedia, MW 18014 and V-2 rocket |
| Mittelwerk GmbH, 19 October 1943 | Wikipedia, Mittelwerk |
| Deaths | Wikipedia, V-2 rocket (citing a 2011 BBC documentary via Ramsey, and Hunt, Secret Agenda, 1991) |
| Launch angle, 45° comparison | My arithmetic, in the page's script |