Word: destructiveness
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Juno. The Army's huge Juno II missile, built around the reliable Jupiter intermediate-range ballistic missile and carrying a 91.5-lb. space laboratory in its nose cone, lifted off its pad and almost immediately veered dangerously inland. The range safety officer jabbed the "destruct" button. Belching orange flame and black smoke, its upper-stage rockets exploding, the space monster crashed to the ground barely 150 ft. from the blockhouse where 55 scientists and technicians were watching (it was more than an hour before they could come out safely). From an observers' stand a quarter of a mile...
...Destruct: v.t., barbarism of destroy; also adj., as used in "destruct button...
...Electronic Ground Automatic Destruct Sequencer): the ground-operated mechanism that destroys a missile in flight...