Named in honor of the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville Alabama where it was developed, the SSM-A-14 Redstone was the first large ballistic missile in the U.S. inventory. Designed by the Army Ballistic Missile Agency under the leadership of the brilliant Wernher von Braun, Redstone was a direct descendant of the A-4 / V-2 rocket produced in Nazi Germany. Design work on the missile was finished in 1952. It incorporated many innovations including inertial guidance and a separable warhead section that, by decreasing drag, increased the weapon's range. Steerable rudders and refractory carbon vanes...