The V-2, the world first ballistic missile, was deployed by the German Army in 1944-45 against cities in Britain, Belgium and France. It's aluminum-magnesium alloy liquid-oxygen tank normally carried 4970 kg (10,957 lb) of super-cold liquid oxygen, which would be consumed during the approximately one-minute burning time of the missile's rocket engine. The main fuel duct from the alcohol tank runs through it. Other apertures include the main oxygen duct to the turbopump and engine, the filling connection to the side of the rocket, and the vent pipe for gaseous oxygen boiled off before launch.

NASM's artifact was likely captured in 1945 by the U.S. Army at the Mittelwerk underground plant near Nordhausen, Germany, where concentration-camp prisoners would have installed it in a missile on the assembly line.