That V-2 rocket was indeed the first thing in space, but there's a distinction to be made: it only went suborbital. If our big steel friend wasn't tragically va

That V-2 rocket was indeed the first thing in space, but there's a distinction to be made: it only went suborbital. If our big steel friend wasn't tragically vaporized in the atmosphere, it might just have left the earth's gravity well--maybe even the solar system's well (escape velocity of 44km/s), which is in part why that incident is so cool! Fun fact: the first ever picture taken from space was from a v-2 rocket launched in 1946. This is what it looked like: https://thumbs-prod.si-cdn.com/nnJLv8axPAJI3nScxyDExEeTQLk=/800x600/filters:no_upscale()/https://public-media.smithsonianmag.com/filer/33/d1/33d15156-47cd-4307-9c23-e3c8498539f5/1stphotofromspacejpg__600x0_q85_upscale.jpg https://thumbs-prod.si-cdn.com/nnJLv8axPAJI3nScxyDExEeTQLk=/...