Word: vanguarde
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...early-morning darkness at Cape Canaveral, the morning star and the thin edge of a waning moon graced the eastern sky. Their light faded, and at 6:45 the sun burst bright and yellow above a cloud bank to bathe the slender dark-green-and-white Vanguard rocket standing on Launch Pad 18A. In Vanguard's nose was a 3¼-lb. antenna-horned space satellite that symbolized at once the hope and despair of all the men at the Cape. Temperamental Vanguard, twice a spectacular failure, was once again ready for the shoot: the countdown was onT minus...
...Navy's anchor," some of the wits had dubbed the bird, and someone suggested that all Vanguard needed was a rubber band to spring it skyward. Said Scientist J. (for James) Paul Walsh, 40, pugnacious Vanguard deputy director who bossed the Cape project: "It made me goddam mad. If they call you a lummox long enough, you've got to be careful or you'll start believing...
...Vanguard's rocketmen, too devoted to believe in anything but ultimate success, gilded their worries with sentiment. As the moment for last week's shoot approached, one man fastened a St. Christopher's medal inside the bird, after producing a formal equipment-change memo on which was printed, as the reason for the change...
ADDITION OF DIVINE GUIDANCE. Stenciled at the top of the Vanguard, near the satellite itself, was HAVE BALL, WILL ORBIT. And at the base someone had printed three words that summed up the hopes of all missiledom: LOVE LIFTED ME. Vanguard was ready...
...Minus Ten." Gathered in the blockhouse, many of them wearing green shirts in honor of St. Patrick's Day, the countdown crewmen ticked off the checklist. At the intersection of Navaho Road and Vanguard Road, 1.800 ft. away, Walsh took his position in a faded blue Air Force communications van. With him was President Eisenhower's Naval Aide E. P. (Pete) Aurand and a handful of Vanguard men. Paul Walsh had a phone line hooked to the Washington office of his immediate superior, Dr. John P. Hagen, director of Project Vanguard. The same line was connected to telephones...