Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 September 6

From today's featured list

Launch of a V-2 rocket from Peenemünde, Germany
Launch of a V-2 rocket from Peenemünde, Germany

Spaceflight as a practical endeavor began during World War II with the development of operational liquid-fueled rockets. Beginning life as a weapon, the V-2 (example pictured) was impressed into peaceful service after the war at the United States' White Sands Missile Range as well as the Soviet Union's Kapustin Yar. This led to a flourishing of missile designs setting the stage for the exploration of space. The small American WAC Corporal rocket was evolved into the Aerobee, a much more powerful sounding rocket. Exploration of space began in earnest in 1947 with the flight of the first Aerobee, 46 of which had flown by the end of 1950. These and other rockets, both Soviet and American, returned the first direct data on air density, temperature, charged particles and magnetic fields in the Earth's upper atmosphere. (Full list...)

Today's featured picture

Marie-Gabrielle Capet

Marie-Gabrielle Capet (6 September 1761 – 1 November 1818) was a French Neoclassical painter. Until the French Revolution, the Royal Academy of Art in Paris was responsible for training artists and exhibiting artworks at the Salon, but limited the number of female students to four at a time. Unable to gain a place, she moved to Paris in 1781 to become a student of Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, with whom she struck up a lifelong friendship. She specialised in painting portraits, her works including oil paintings, watercolours and miniatures. This oil-on-canvas self-portrait of Capet, dating from around 1783, is in the collection of the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo.

Painting credit: Marie-Gabrielle Capet

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