The Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) is the part of the US Army which, in the 1950s, designed the Jupiter-C IRBM and Jupiter IRBM. The Saturn I was also conceived by the ABMA. At this time the ABMA was headed by Doctor Wernher von Braun.

The ABMA and the Jupiter-C

After the US Naval Research Laboratory's Project Vanguard was chosen by the DOD Committee on Special Capabilities, over the ABMA's proposal to use a modified Redstone ballistic missile as a satellite launch vehicle, the ABMA was ordered to stop work on satellites and focus, instead, on intermediate missiles .

Wernher von Braun, disobeying orders, continued work on the design for what became the Jupiter-C IRBM. This was a 3 stage rocket, which, by coincidence, could be used to launch a satellite (in the Juno I configuration). In September 1956, the Jupiter-C was launched with a 30-lb dummy satellite. It is generally believed that, at this time, the ABMA could have put a satellite into orbit had the US government allowed ABMA to do so. A year later, the Soviets launched Sputnik I.