Word: rocketeers
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...rocket which rose last week from White Sands Proving Ground, N. Mex., reached an altitude of 95 miles. The most important man in the act, at least to innocent bystanders, was Herbert L. Karsch, flight safety officer. Karsch's job is to keep rockets from leaving the 90-by-35-mile area of uninhabited desert and mountains where they are supposed to hit. The authorities would consider it unfortunate, for instance, if a wandering rocket were to smack El Paso...
Safety Screen. All sorts of things can go wrong with a rocket. It rises almost vertically at first, and is put on its course by pre-set gyroscopic instruments. When the instruments do not work just right, the rocket may dive to the ground, fly horizontally, or circle back with blood in its eye toward the launching platform. At least six of White Sands's rockets have circled. One missed the control blockhouse by only about 600 feet...
Fire! Then Murphy counted by seconds: "X minus 10 . . . 9 . . . 8 . . ." When he reached "5," Rosen ordered: "Fire!" A man at the control board pushed a switch, setting off the rocket's igniter. The rocket was not supposed to go off until "zero," but as Commander Murphy chanted "4 . . . 3 . . ." an enormous, fiery blast broke out from under its fins. For a fraction of a second, the rocket hesitated. For another fraction it rose slowly. Then it rose like a streak, as if an irresistible force had picked it off the earth and tossed it into the sky. Behind...
...seconds the Viking rose properly, leaving a trail of white vapor that twisted with the wind. Then the fuel stopped burning, prematurely. When its fire went out, the rocket was 10.5 miles up and rising at 1,775 m.p.h. Coasting upward on momentum, it reached an altitude of 33 miles and started down again...
...seconds later, a radio signal from the control room exploded a small charge and blew off the rocket's nose. Unstream-lined by separation, the parts tumbled over & over. As they fell toward the earth, observers saw silvery flashes of sunlight reflected from aluminum. Dust rose from the desert, and back from eight miles away came a muffled sound of an alcohol-oxygen explosion...