Atlas accuracy tests - 0.5 miles off track, 5.5 miles long at 5,500 nm range - lousy CEP by current standards showing why megaton warheads were needed. Another launch gave conflicting stats with one method showing even worse accuracy, but another measurement method showing an impressive 0.5 mile accuracy. Who knows if that latter claim was misinformation to fool the Soviets.

Project SCORE is also covered.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCORE_%28satellite%29

SCORE (Signal Communications by Orbiting Relay Equipment) was the world's first purpose-built communications satellite. Launched aboard an American Atlas rocket on December 18, 1958, SCORE provided the second test of a communications relay system in space (the first having been provided by the USAF/NASA's Pioneer 1),[3] the first broadcast of a human voice from space, and the first successful use of the Atlas as a launch vehicle. It captured world attention by broadcasting a Christmas message via shortwave radio from U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower through an on-board tape recorder.[4] The satellite was popularly dubbed "The Talking Atlas". SCORE, as a geopolitical strategy, placed the United States at an even technological par with the Soviet Union as a highly functional response to the Sputnik 1 and Sputnik 2 satellites.

USAF Film Report 1959 - Thor, Titan, Atlas Development - HD remastered

Original footage from USAF. Sound cleanup, film dust removal, conversion to the original 24 fps frame rate, geometry correction, and color restoration by Retro Space HD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKRYSQyysIs

__________________
The other day I sat next to a woman who has a profound fear of flying. I wanted to comfort her, so I said, "Don't worry, we're not gonna' crash. Statistically, we got a better chance of being bitten by a shark." Then I showed her the scar on my elbow from a shark attack. I said, "I got this when my plane went down off of Florida." - Dennis Regan

With all the "super hero" missile/rocket names, next should be "Hulk"; blows up and turns everything PEUKE GREEN.

__________________
When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.
ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, TURMOIL, FIASCOS, and HAVOC !

Many orbits around the sun ago, I made a side trip on the way home from a NARAM through Abilene, Kansas.

The purpose was to get a copy of Eisenhower's message from Project Score. I had planned to build a circuit into the nose cone so that the message plays when the cone is ejected from the body tube. I am still waiting for Estes to rerelease the Mercury-Atlas kit for my kitbash.

The message can be easily found on the Internet now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuNHkEvUOCc


Bill

__________________
It is well past time to Drill, Baby, Drill!

If your June, July, August and September was like this, you might just hate summer too...

Please unload your question before you ask it unless you have a concealed harry permit.

: countdown begin cr dup . 1- ?dup 0= until cr ." Launch!" cr ;

Give a man a rocket and he will fly for a day; teach him to build and he will spend the rest of his days sanding...

Problem with that idea is, you don't get scale points for it... the SCORE Atlas injected the ENTIRE ROCKET including the payload tape player and communications gear into orbit all together, so the "nose cone didn't separate" LOL Later! OL J R

__________________
The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round!