On Target

Just before dawn, at an altitude of 33,000 ft., Pan American Airways Flight 2 was about 550 miles out of Tokyo, bound for Honolulu. "Suddenly I saw what appeared to be a bright star with a gaseous-appearing halo, elliptical in shape," said Captain H. Lanier Turner. "But right away I could see it was moving, and I judged it to be an ICBM, or something the Russians were trying to put in orbit.

"Within two minutes the star was in the center of the halo, which appeared to be about ten times the size of the moon. Then the star became elongated, in a dumbbell shape, as if a separation were taking place. Then the missile became a spot of light as it merged with the horizon in the purplish light of the early dawn."

Moments later, the rocket splashed close to its target within a triangle of three Russian recovery vessels 1,000 miles south of Hawaii, 8,078 miles from its launching site deep within the Soviet Union. This was 1,000 miles short of the distance record set by the U.S.'s Atlas last May. Alerted two weeks ago by a Radio Moscow broadcast warning the world's shipping to stay clear of the 50,000-sq.-mi. target zone, the U.S. Navy had had airplanes circling the area for days; Navy planes saw the impact, traced the rocket's progress by telemetry and radar.

Two days later the Russians fired another rocket into the Pacific target area, then abruptly canceled this series of tests, which was scheduled to last until the end of the month. So accurate were the rockets, gloated Russian scientists, that further testing was unnecessary. Crowed Tass: "All the necessary data has been obtained for the development of the carrier rocket intended for the further conquest of cosmic space."

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