Bad Missile Week

Missile scientists insist that they learn something from every big bird that gets off the launching pad. no matter how ignominious its end. But by any other name, an epidemic of missile failures at Cape Canaveral last week added up to one of the most disappointing weeks of U.S. missilery. Items:

Atlas. The Air Force's most advanced intercontinental ballistic projectile was scheduled to be operational in limited numbers by now, but five successive failures prompted Defense Secretary Neil McElroy to postpone the readiness date by at least 60 days (TIME, July 6). Before last week's launchings, the Air Force and Convair, the makers of the ICBM, put out word that Atlas was on the mend, and that the causes of the failures had been traced and corrected. Last week the Air Force tried four times to launch another Atlas. Because of assorted bugs, it never left the launching pad.

Juno. The Army's huge Juno II missile, built around the reliable Jupiter intermediate-range ballistic missile and carrying a 91.5-lb. space laboratory in its nose cone, lifted off its pad and almost immediately veered dangerously inland. The range safety officer jabbed the "destruct" button. Belching orange flame and black smoke, its upper-stage rockets exploding, the space monster crashed to the ground barely 150 ft. from the blockhouse where 55 scientists and technicians were watching (it was more than an hour before they could come out safely). From an observers' stand a quarter of a mile away, photographers got what may be history's best view of the business end of an oncoming missile. Explanation of the failure: an inverter did not feed current into the guidance system, and so the bird flew aimlessly. Dr. Walter Orr Roberts, director of the University of Colorado's high-altitude observatory, lamented that the failure "probably has set our kind of scientific research back ten years," because the misfire cost scientists a priceless opportunity to study an unusually powerful and unexpected solar flare on the day of the scheduled launching.

Polaris. The Navy's highly touted solid-fuel Polaris, designed to be fired from submerged atomic submarines, has run into its share of troubles after a period of heady development. Last week's test-Polaris was destroyed in the air by the safety officer when it began to fly erratically and its two stages separated prematurely. Departing from the usual hedging, the Navy admitted that the launching was a "complete failure"--but added that it was the first such failure in eleven tries. Actually. Polaris has exploded four times, has been really successful on only three shots.

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