In this episode of True Adventure with Bill Burrud, host and producer Burrud welcomes viewers to the show, then footage shows rockets, including a space rocket blasting off (02:30). Men work on building a missile (02:55). The episode shows testing of the intercontinental Thor missile (03:50). Men in a control room prepare for the launch of the first Thor missile (04:30), which explodes during the launch attempt. Spectators watch a successful blastoff of the missile shortly thereafter (05:35). A Thor missile sits at a launch site in England (06:27). Engineers work on a Thor missile (07:24). In Spring 1958, a Thor-Able is launched (08:05). Men work on the Explorer satellite (08:47). A Thor-Able missile launches a satellite into space (09:17). Another Thor missile is launched (10:46). The episode shows a handful of shots of missiles standing by, ready for launch. A Minuteman missile is lowered into a silo (12:06); later, the missile is launched and flies through the air (12:43). A SM-65 Atlas missile is lifted into launch position (13:45). Men in a control room monitor the missile during the final countdown. The missile launches into the air but starts to go off course and is immediately detonated. Cape Canaveral personnel prepare for nose-cone recovery tests in a control room (16:17). An Atlas missile is launched from Cape Canaveral (17:36) and flies on its intended path. A radar tracks the Atlas (08:56). A Navy destroyer moves to where the nose cone has landed; paradivers prepare their gear for a jump to keep the nose cone from sinking while the destroyer moves toward it. The paradivers jump from the plane (19:55) and wait for the arrival of the destroyer. Members of the Air Force successfully attempt an in-air recovery of an Atlas nose cone (20:25) using a catch plane. The episode shows a handful of missiles at launch sites before Burrud closes the episode with a conversation with Ted Smith, Chief Engineer of Space Systems for the Douglas Aircraft Company.
The Thor-Able was an American expendable launch system and sounding rocket used for a series of re-entry vehicle tests and satellite launches between 1958 and 1960. It was a two stage rocket, consisting of a Thor IRBM as a first stage and a Vanguard-derived Able second stage. On some flights, an Altair solid rocket motor was added as a third stage. It was a member of the Thor family and an early predecessor of the Delta.
The SM-65 Atlas was the first operational intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) developed by the United States and the first member of the Atlas rocket family. It was built for the U.S. Air Force by Convair Division of General Dynamics at the Kearny Mesa assembly plant north of San Diego. Atlas became operational as an ICBM in October 1959 and was used as a first stage for satellite launch vehicles for half a century. The Atlas missile’s warhead was over 100 times more powerful than the bomb dropped over Nagasaki in 1945.
The LGM-30 Minuteman is a U.S. land-based intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), in service with the Air Force Global Strike Command. As of 2017, the LGM-30G Minuteman III version is the only land-based ICBM in service in the United States. Development of the Minuteman began in the mid-1950s as the outgrowth of basic research into solid fuel rocket motors which indicated an ICBM based on solids was possible. Such a missile could stand ready for extended periods of time with little maintenance, and then launch on command. In comparison, existing U.S. missile designs using liquid rocket propellant required a lengthy fueling process immediately before launch, which left them open to the possibility of surprise attack. This potential for immediate launch gave the missile its name; like the Revolutionary War’s Minutemen, the Minuteman was designed to be launched on a moment’s notice.
Ted R. Smith (1906–1976) was an American aircraft designer. He worked for the Douglas Aircraft Company, Aero Design and Engineering Company, and Rockwell Standard Corporation. In 40 years, his designs included the Douglas A-26 Invader (under the direction of Ed Heinemann), and the first all metal small twin engine business aircraft for Aero Commander, a company that he helped to start. The Aero Commander line included one of the first twin engined business jets, the Jet Commander. In the 1960s he designed and manufactured the Aerostar line, under his own name. The Aerostar was later built by Piper Aircraft, as the Piper Aerostar. In 1935 Smith started his career at Douglas as a tool designer that would lead him to work on the B-18, B-23, and finally lead engineer on the A-20 project supervising 500 employees before leaving to form his own company.
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