Project Nike

Project Nike (Greek: Νίκη, "Victory") was a U.S. Army project proposed in May 1945 by Bell Laboratories, to develop a line-of-sight anti-aircraft missile system. The project delivered the United States' first operational anti-aircraft missile system, the Nike Ajax, in 1953. Many technologies and rocket systems used for developing the Nike Ajax were re-used in other projects, many given the "Nike" name (after Nike, the goddess of victory from Greek mythology). The missile's first-stage solid rocket booster became the basis for many types of rocket, including the Nike Hercules missile and NASA's Nike Smoke rocket, used for upper-atmosphere research.