Army Ballistic Missile Agency

The ABMA and the Jupiter-C

After the NRL's[?] Project Vanguard was chosen by the DOD Committee on Special Capabilities, over the ABMA's proposal to use a modified Redstone ballistic missile[?] as a satellite launch vehicle, the ABMA was ordered to stop work on satellites and focus, instead, on intermediate missiles[?].

Von Braun, disobeying orders, continued work on the design for what became the Jupiter-C IRBM. This was a 3 stage rocket, which, by coincidence, could be used to launch a satellite (in the Juno I configuration). In September 1956, the Jupiter-C was launched with a 30-lb dummy satellite. It is generally believed that, at this time, the ABMA could have put a satellite into orbit had the US government allowed ABMA to do so. A year later, the Soviets launched Sputnik I.