[1] CPIAC is the oldest IAC, having been in continuous operation since 1946 when it was founded as the Rocket Propellant Information Agency as part of the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory.

This extensive information collection represents the documented national knowledge base in chemical rocket propulsion and is available for dissemination to eligible individuals and organizations.

CPIAC also performs research in support of its publication of a series of recurrent technology reviews and state-of-the-art reports in selected technical areas.

Following deactivation of the OSRD in 1945, several of these early scientists accepted positions at the fledgling Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and were subsequently appointed by Commander (later Admiral) Levering Smith to serve on the post-war Navy Bureau of Ordnance (BuOrd) Propellant and Ignition Advisory Group.

In April 1946, at the suggestion of Dr. Ralph E. Gibson (later to become the second director of APL), the group recommended the establishment of “a rocket intelligence agency with one main responsibility—that of promoting rapid circulation of technical information to all activities concerned.” Armed with $20,000 in BuOrd funding, APL established the initial Rocket Propellant Information Agency (RPIA) on 3 December 1946 to consolidate, organize, and catalog the inventory of wartime reports.