Test Nose Cone

The museum has an exhibit (which tends moves about from time to time) featuring a test nose cone. Although the curator tells me that no paperwork accompanied the nose cone when it was transferred to the museum from Marshall Space Flight Center, it appears to be similar to nose cones from the Jupiter-C program.

The Jupiter-C had three flights, all in support of the Jupiter missile program. The first flight, RS-27, was fitted with a dummy fourth stage and was a test of the rocket itself. The remaining two flights were fitted with ablative nose cones, scaled down versions of the nose cone to be used on the Jupiter, rather than the dummy fourth stage. The second flight, RS-34, suffered a failure of the second stage. The third flight, RS-40, on August 7, 1957, was completely successful. After the launch of Sputnik, President Eisenhower showed off the recovered ablative nose cone in a televised speech.

That recovered nose cone is on display at the Smithsonian, so this particular nose cone is likely one which underwent ground testing.