Television cameras were used to film rocket propellant thrust tests in 1957.
A General Precision Laboratory television camera system filmed the firing of a 1,000-pound thrust rocket at a lab back in 1957.
The tests, which utilized high-energy propellants, were run at night when the center was empty due to the explosive danger posed by liquid hydrogen, fluorine and oxygen. Research at the Rocket Lab was shifting during this period from full-scale engine and propellant types to fundamental research such as combustion and heat transfer.