When the US Navy tried to send mail using a missile

What if Americans’ daily mail could be delivered not by postal truck but by a cruise missile? On June 8, 1959, the U.S. Navy had a submarine try just that. It kind of worked.

66 years ago today the U.S. Navy tested out a concept previously known as “rocket mail,” only in this case they used a relatively new Regulus 1 cruise missile.

The idea of “rocket mail” was first theorized in 1810 by German author Heinrich von Kleist. The initial concept was more artillery bombardment mail than rocket mail, with the idea being to fire the mail from cannons, using ballistic power and trajectories to route letters. Early, independent attempts were done in the 19th Century, but nothing widespread came out of it. However the idea picked up momentum in the first half of the 20th Century. Hobbyists and sc