Word: thors
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Along such relatively simple lines. General Electric built most of the early nose cones and, considering the state of the art, they were successful enough in the first Thor and Atlas missiles. But they were heavy-and in an ICBM, every ounce of nose cone takes away from the warhead which is the rocket's real reason for being. And the blunt-nosed cones began slowing down while still high in the atmosphere, making them more vulnerable to antimissile missiles as they descended toward earth...
...Doppler Effect. Lofted by an Air Force Thor-Able-Star rocket. Transit I-B slanted around the world from 51° N. to 51° S. and settled into an elliptical orbit (apogee, 475 miles; perigee, 235 miles), sending radio signals from the moment it left the pad. From Texas to Hampshire, England, tracking stations sent information to a computing center near Washington, D.C. In future models, orbit-predicting data will be quickly rebroadcast to the satellite, which will remember its daily itinerary on magnetic tape, constantly announce it from space (the day-to-day orbital variations are minuscule...
...only one of Douglas' troubles. The phasing out of manned aircraft and quick changes in missile technology are leaving the company without a bread-and-butter contract. Items: ¶ The Thor program is fast ending...
Though there are firm orders (twelve units) for the Thor Delta, the production peak has been passed. The last Thor was delivered last month. ¶ The Air Force's Skybolt, an air-launched ballistic missile, may eventually be a big program (some estimates put it well over $500 million), but it is still in the early development stages and is by no means large enough to fill the hole left by Thor...
With a huge gush of smoke and flame, the three-stage Thor-Able rocket last week roared from its Cape Canaveral launching pad, soon to swirl its 270-lb. package into orbit around the earth. To the scientific skeptics who claim that satellites are little more than spectacular stunts, that package provided a spectacularly practical answer: looking down from hundreds of miles in space, it could take and transmit pictures of the earth and its cloud-splotched atmosphere. At the very least...