Word: atlas
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Serious Weaknesses. McNamara observed -before the Kwajalein test that it would be conducted under "controlled conditions that differ substantially from actual combat." In last week's test the onrushing Atlas ICBM actually carried a transmitter to clue the slender, 48-ft. Nike-Zeus bird in on its target.* In an actual attack, an ICBM might spew out "decoys" designed to baffle the tracking radar-as was not the case last week-or an ionospheric nuclear blast might knock out the radar altogether. "As advanced as the Nike-Zeus system is-and we believe it to be quite advanced...
...Radio signals of another sort were responsible last week for postponing the scheduled launching of an Atlas-Agena B rocket on the start of a 4½-month, 224 million-mile journey to Venus, the earth's sister planet. Mariner I was all set for the shot when an unindentified radio signal detected in the booster rocket made technicians at Cape Canaveral fear a malfunction. Later, they rescheduled the flight, which is aimed at discovering the first accurate data about Venus and its mysterious atmosphere...
...predawn fog oozed over the oak-rimmed ravines of California's Vandenberg Air Force Base, a disembodied voice roared out of the loudspeakers: "Strike order received! Clear the silo!" Moments later, the 400-ton steel and concrete doors of an underground Atlas silo yawned, and the missile poked its nose skyward. The countdown continued. At last, an intense yellow light bloomed through the fog as the Atlas rose from its pad like an inverted candle. The voice bawled: "Missile away!" The monster doors swung shut as the Atlas sped through the darkness toward its target 5,000 miles away...
...scratch-and is only just beginning. The job was given to SAC, which has had to assemble crews and drill into them the sciences of inertial guidance, pneumatics, electronics, hydraulics, cryogenics. After hours and hours of such studies, the trainees are sent on to specialized courses on various missiles (Atlas, Titan, Minuteman), then are assigned to combat crews...
Alphabet Soup. At Vandenberg the crews get their most crucial training. Few get a chance to fire an actual missile like last week's. But they come close to the real thing with the help of the Atlas T-601 Trainer, an $800,000 simulator in which each crew must spend from six to eight hours a day for two weeks. The trainer has all the gear of a real block house, plus the machinery by which instructors can crank out data on 200-odd possible missile malfunctions. It is the trainees' job to run their countdowns...