Missile Week

The U.S.'s missile-test Scoreboard last week showed one big win. one loss and one "no decision."

P: Minutes after it had surfaced off California's Point Mugu. the Navy's conventionally powered submarine Grayback launched a stubby-winged turbojet missile from its deck, quietly slipped back under the waves. With chase and control planes following closely. Chance Vought's Regulus II flew a guided, circuitous 200-mile route to Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert, where because of a landing-gear malfunction, it burned up on landing. But the landing was a technicality : the business version of Regulus II will pack a nuclear warhead on a 1,000-mile range, will give the Navy an operational submarine-launched supersonic missile until the IRBM Polaris (fired from a submerged sub) comes along in 1960.

P: At Cape Canaveral. Fla., the Air Force's first attempt to send an Atlas ICBM its full intercontinental range--more than 6,000 miles--ended in failure when the giant rocket exploded 60,000 ft. in the air. only So seconds after leaving the launching pad.

P: If In an abortive effort to place a 20-in. weather satellite into orbit, the Navy's hard-luck Vanguard rocket belched flames and steam, rose three-quarters of an inch off its Cape Canaveral launching pad, then settled gently back into place. Because of a "random failure," the first-stage rocket engine had shut off automatically just in time to prevent Vanguard from toppling over and exploding, saving it to fly again another day. Vanguard's sorry record to date: seven tries, six failures.

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