CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida USA — Fifty model rockets soared into the sky Monday in a golden-anniversary salute to the first launch from Cape Canaveral.

"Amazing. Amazing," said Herman Bank, 83, a member of the original launch team. "I never thought that this would all come from such little things like what we did 50 years ago."

Liftoff occurred just a few hundred feet from the large concrete slab that served as the launch pad for the Army's Bumper 8 rocket on July 24, 1950. 

Bumper was a captured German V-2 rocket from World War II, topped with an American upper stage known as a WAC Corporal.

About 250 people stood on the normally bare concrete pad inside Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to watch the mini-launches, including 11 Bumper veterans.

"I'll cross my fingers just like I always do," said Bob Droz, 86, who traveled from California for the reunion, as did Bank.

Fifty 9-inch rockets were supposed to lift off in groups of 10 - each group representing a decade of missile and rocket launches from Cape Canaveral. But as in real life, the launches didn't go exactly as planned.

Several rockets sputtered on their igniting stands and needed extra tries. Once airborne, some didn't get too high. One never even got off the ground because of a bad fuse.

Most of the 49 that were launched, though, reached more than 100 feet in altitude.

"That's better than it was back then," someone joked from the sidelines.

Then it was time for the grand finale: the launch of a 6 1/2-foot replica of Bumper 8, about one-eighth the size of the original.

The crowd chanted: "5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Zero!" The black-and-white model rocket stood still, then smoke began billowing from the bottom. With a small roar, the rocket shot up nearly 1,000 feet. It fell back to Earth with a thud, its parachutes opening too late.

Liftoff was about 10 minutes before the original launch time of 9:28 a.m., but no one seemed to mind. It was too hot to wait.

The first six Bumper rockets flew from White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico. The final two in the Bumper series took off from Cape Canaveral, chosen by the U.S. government for launches because of its remoteness and the absence of people beneath the Atlantic flight path.

Since Bumper 8's semi-successful test flight over the ocean, an estimated 3,200 missiles and rockets have blasted off from Cape Canaveral.

"To think that within just a short time after that we were walking on the moon, in 19 years," said Droz. "It's just tremendous strides that we've made."