Jupiter Missile

Jupiter was the United States' first intermediate-range ballistic missile. In December, 1955, the Army and Navy announced a dual program to create a land and sea-based intermediate-range ballistic missile. The Jupiter IRBM was designed as a short missile to ease handling aboard ships. At the end of 1956, the IRBM program was transferred to the U.S. Air Force. The Jupiter missile was used in a series of sub-orbital test flights. The most famous of these was a biological test flight conducted on May 29, 1959. An American-born rhesus monkey named "Able" and a South American squirrel monkey named "Baker" rode in the nosecone of the missile to an altitude of 360 miles and at a top speed of 10,000 miles per hour. Both monkeys survived the flight in good condition and proved that living creatures could pass through space and return safely to earth. The Jupiter missile on exhibit is 67 feet tall and weighs 11 tons (22,000 pounds) stripped of its internal equipment.

Roanoke, Virginia · United States