File:V-2 missile lower assembly - Smithsonian Air and Space Museum - 2012-05-15 (7246253476).jpg

V-2 missile lower assembly, with an Aerobee-150 sounding rocket behind it. On display at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

Developed by Nazi Germany at the beginning of World War II, the V-2 was the world's first ballistic missile, the world's first long-range missile, the world's first combat-ready ballistic missile, and first human-made artifact to enter outer space.

Beginning in September 1944, Naxi Germany launched more than 3,000 V-2s against the United Kingdom and Antwerp, Belgium. V-2s killed roughly 7,500 people.

The V-2 was largely developed by Wernher von Braun, who initially worked closely with German rocket theorist Hermann Oberth. He later used rocket plans published in academic journals by the American physicist Robert H. Goddard. In 1939, von Braun's team at Peenemünde developed the first large liquid-fuel rocket engines, the first stablizing supersonic aerodynamics, the first gyroscopic guidance controls, and the first rudders in jet control.

V-2s were initially guided by radio beacons, which cut off the engine at a certain velocity and altitude and allowed the missile to strike its target based on gravity and simple physics. Later V-2s carried simple on-board computers which calculated speed, altitude, and azimuth, and cut off the engine based on these parameters.