1962-08-31 USA Re-entry Test 2

A Scout V-114 reentry-heating test launch cover from "Hudson" featuring a rubber-stamped cachet, postmarked at Wallops Island with a machine cancel on August 31, 1962.

The Scout V-114, launched on August 31, 1962, carried the R-2 reentry-heating experiment as part of NASA’s Scout Reentry Heating Project. The program used Scout rockets to place experimental reentry vehicles on trajectories simulating the extreme heating conditions of a lunar return.

The R-2 vehicle was equipped with thermocouples in its blunt-nosed heat shield to measure aerodynamic heating during atmospheric reentry. After being accelerated by the Scout’s upper stages, it entered the atmosphere at approximately 30,500 km/h (18,950 mph), approaching the speeds expected during a lunar-return trajectory. Telemetry received at Wallops Island, Bermuda, and a range telemetry ship provided valuable flight data on reentry heating for NASA’s developing Apollo program.