V-2 Rocket Date: 10.03.1942 Seeking new weapons in World War II, Germany tests the first ballistic missile - a rocket capable of carrying explosives to distant targets. The V-2 is also the first rocket to reach the fringes of space. Rocket pioneer Wernher von Braun led the team that designed the missile.
When the first V-2 hit London in 1944, von Braun reportedly told his colleagues, von Braun reportedly said the rocket worked perfectly "except for landing on the wrong planet." He will later design and build the rocket that boosts American astronauts to the Moon.
