Highwater 1 and 2 were two suborbital tests of the Saturn I launch vehicle that resulted in the creation of massive ice clouds in the ionosphere. The second and third stages of the Saturn contained 87,000 liters of water to simulate the mass of fully-fuelled stages. Following the successful launch of the first stage, the rocket was detonated by explosives with a signal from the ground. The released water formed a massive cloud of ice particles several km in diameter. By this experiment, scientists had hoped to obtain data on atmospheric physics, but poor telemetry made the results questionable. Highwater 2 marked the third straight launch success for the Saturn I and the first with maximum mass on board.

 

spacecraft	launch vehicle	launch date	launch site	altitude/time of detonation	length of experiment
Highwater 1	Saturn I	Apr 25, 1962	Cape Canaveral	105 km / 2.5 min	1.62 days
Highwater 2	Saturn I	Nov 16, 1962	Cape Canaveral	167 km / 4 min 53 s	1.46 days