Chrysler Jupiter-C Missile w/Explorer 1 Satellite (1959)

Scale: 1/110
Initial Release: 1959
Medium: Styrene
Kit Rarity: 3

About the Design

First successfully test-fired in 1956, the Jupiter C was actually a Redstone missile (a modified Redstone) adapted for satellite-launching missions. Based heavily on Werner von Braun's WWII-era V-2, the Jupiter C made history on January 31, 1958 when -- following the failure of the Navy's Vanguard satellite launch the previous December -- it launched Explorer 1, America's first successful orbital satellite.

About the Kit

Revell came out with this nicely detailed kit in 1958, and then re-released a "History Makers" version some 25 years later. Another Special Subjects release was done in 2010 using the original 1950s box art.

This is a version of the "History Makers" kit purchased in and built in the mid-1980's