Word: boosterism
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...EXPORTS-RISE in February brought total to $1.5 billion, a 27% jump over same month in 1959. Big booster: nearly 1,000,000 bales of February cotton...
Once safe in space, a missile or satellite is hard to find (see above). But when it is first launched, its booster looses an enormous amount of heat that shines far out into space as a blaze of infrared radiation. At Cape Canaveral last week the U.S. attempted to launch its first reconnaissance satellite designed to take advantage of this fact. Called Midas (from Missile Defense Alarm System), the satellite carried infrared detectors, which will pick up a missile's hot exhaust trail as it rises above the hazy, moisture-laden lower atmosphere. From a satellite on a high...
...outward. An air bubble allows part of the flame to get ahead of the rest. The result is a "hot spot" that burns a hole in the rocket's metal casing before all its fuel is consumed, causing a disastrous blowout. To eliminate such a mishap, each booster is taken to a fenced-off area blazoned with signs warning against radiation. There it is wrapped in X-ray film, and a speck of fiercely radioactive cobalt 60 is thrust into its cavity. When the films are developed, they show up any air bubbles...
...Monster. The heavy boosters are horsed around by ordinary cranes, but these are being replaced by a monstrous device called a transrector. Built by Hufford Corp. of El Segundo, Calif., it weighs 121,000 Ibs., costs $750,000. With its two engines and its five-man crew, it can lift a booster from deep underground and brandish it like a cigar. Its massive but sensitive arms can pin an egg down so delicately that the shell is not cracked, yet so firmly that the egg cannot be removed without breaking...
Like all big missiles, Minuteman is an assembly job, using components from many sources. Besides making the heavy first-stage booster, Thiokol may also get the contract for the second-stage booster. The third stage, which has yet to reach final design, will probably be made by Hercules Powder Co. at Bacchus, 15 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. The guidance system, made by North American Aviation, Inc. (it recently got a $115 million contract), will be shipped in from California. Boeing Airplane Co. will put together the three stages and install the guidance system in the completed missile...