Sounding rockets provided the first means to carry instruments to the outermost reaches of the Earth's atmosphere. They were, indeeed, our first space vehicles.

To explore the upper atmosphere man first used kites, then balloons, then aircraft. For many years balloons were the most effective means of obtaining direct me

All NASA Sounding Rocket Program flights from May 1959 through December 1964 are listed in the summary tables. Those rockets fired in 1959, 1960, 1961 and 1962