This film, created by the Martin Company in 1964, documents the challenges and accomplishments of the United States during the “space race” of the previous decade, with an emphasis on rockets and intercontinental ballistic missiles (TRT: 26:26).
A covered wagon train in the American west (0:08). A steam locomotive billowing smoke. A Union Pacific E-9 locomotive. POV operating an excavator (0:30). An early mainframe computer with magnetic tape data storage units. Still photo of the US Strategic Missiles Evaluation Committee aka the “Teapot Committee” (0:41). Color animation: Soviet rockets against a red sky (1:03). A crowd gathers on the lawn outside an office building. The Space and Missile Systems Center in El Segundo, CA, 1964. Airmen salute (1:35). A crowd at a street corner, waving. A guard watches through binoculars. A streetside memorial. An elderly couple looks on (1:59). Montage: a US V-2 “Bumper” sounding rocket at Cape Canaveral. The Vanguard rocket in 1957. The Titan II Gemini Launch Vehicle erupts from an underground missile silo (2:10). Opening titles, “Ten Years to Remember” (2:52). The USS Nautilus nuclear submarine launches, 1954. Cape Canaveral (3:05). General Bernard Schriever speaks (3:30). 1954 rocket launches. A large airframe is transported. Black smoke pours from a rocket engine (4:25). A missile guidance system under a magnifying glass (5:01). Montage: R&D. Clean rooms, computers, engineers at drafting tables (5:09). The nose of Atlas I in close up, 1956. Rocket boosters fire (5:27). Missile silo domes (5:43). Aerial view of an Air Force base (5:55). Two men at a chalkboard with an illustration of a two-stage rocket. Thor rockets in production, testing (6:04). The HGM-25A Titan I rocket at launch (6:45). Animation depicts the 2nd stage detaching, with satellite communication (6:55). Testing solid fuel engines (7:11). Industrial missile production facilities, testing supersonic turbojets (7:31). USAF officers meet in an office. Draftsman and hard hats at work (8:02). PGM-17 Thor explodes on its launch pad in 1957. Launch failures and fiery Thor rocket explosions (8:26). PGM-17 Thor DM-18 launches successfully, 1957 (9:17). A Soviet engineer works on Sputnik 1. The Sputnik launch. Animation illustrates the satellite’s deployment (9:49). Headlines (10:10). SM-65A Atlas launches (10:17). Jupiter-C Explorer 1 launches, 1958 (10:34) Pioneer 1 launches (11:06). An SM-65B Atlas launches SCORE (11:18). MGM-25A Titan I’s first flight, 1959 (11:24). Thor DM-18 Agena-A launches Discoverer 1 (12:05). A satellite dish rotates against blue sky (12:15). Interior rocket manufacturing facility. Overhead view of men at work (12:21). JFK speaks. A 1960 Chevy Impala 4-door hardtop. Barbed wire at the Berlin Wall (12:35). Intercontinental-range strategic bombers. A submarine-launched ballistic missile (13:05). ICBM’s lift into launch position. A Titan launch. Slow tilt up on a Titan I rocket (13:31). Titan silo launch at Vandenberg Air Force Base, 1961 (14:32). Bases and missile sites under construction (15:01). A Sikorsky H-19 Chickasaw helicopter. Aerial views of test sites (16:46). The camera moves down through a silo elevator (17:07). A satellite dish. The 6594th Aerospace Test Wing in Sunnyvale, CA (now the Air Force Satellite Control Facility, AFSCF). Commanders on telephones (17:56). An Atlas LV-3B launches Mercury-Atlas 6 (18:46). Cheering beach spectators (18:58). John Glenn in orbit inside Friendship 7. Earth from space (19:05). Testing launch boosters. A Saturn rocket. Modified Titans (19:23). Animation: Docking with Agena spacecraft. An octagonal satellite dish. An illustration of a satellite receiving a signal. Booster testing (20:08). Animation depicting plans for Titan III. Jettisoning thrusters. The third stage rocket separates and changes course (20:45). A Wright flyer airplane and a Delta jet airliner (22:07). Atlas, Titan, and Minuteman montage. A scientist in a chemlab (22:59). Zero gravity training (23:14). The Air Force Aerospace Medical Division in San Antonio, TX. A centrifuge. Astronauts in training. Scientists around a table (23:21). Rockets in development tower over men, blow flames sky high (24:29). General Schriever and others in montage (25:02). End titles (26:01).
This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2K. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
