On August 18, 1962, the rocket that was to take Norway into the space age, Ferdinand 1, launched from Andøya Rocket Range. This happened only five years after the Soviet Union launched the first man-made satellite, Sputnik 1. An elongated cyllindric object, ending with a cone, placed on a small, openwork trolley, in front of a hangar, on a sunny day. Sounding rocket payload prepared to be launched from Andoya Rocket Range in 2007.
The Norwegian scientists named the rocket "Ferdinand" after the story of the peaceful bull that did not like to fight but would rather sit in the meadow smelling the flowers. The name was appropriate since the area of the Rocket Range was called Oksebåsen, "The Ox Pasture". This was during the Cold War, so the name should also indicate that Andøya Rocket Range only had peaceful intentions with its research.
Ferdinand-1 was a NIKE-Cajun two-stage rocket that carried two instruments in its payload. The purpose of the launch was to do measurements in the ionosphere, where charged particles from the Sun ionize the atoms. The process is most intense in the polar ionosphere, and is important not only for the Northern Lights, but also for long-range radio communication, because the free electrons reflect the radio waves. The goal was to explore the possibility of improving long-range radio communication.
The rocket was 7.7 m (25 ft) long, had a total weight of 698 kg (1,539 lb) and a maximum speed of 6,760 km/h (4,200 mph). It reached a height of 102 km (63 mi) into the atmosphere. Launching and collecting data after the first rocket was considered a success. Ferdinand 1 became the first of many successful rocket launches from Andøya.