“ ON TARGET: THE ATLAS ICBM ” 1958 CONVAIR ASTRONAUTICS SM-65B MISSILE LAUNCH DOCUMENTARY XD46484

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This 1960 color documentary film from Convair Astronautics Division and General Dynamics Corporation uses montage and bold narration to dramatise the feats of collaborative engineering and technological advancement behind the SM-65 Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile, a success for the United States in the late 1950s, during the Cold War’s “Space Race” with the Soviet Union. This film features the launch of SM-65B, rocket 4B on August 2, 1958. It was the second model of the second prototype version, which introduced a stage and a half system and was the first American rocket to achieve the distinction of being truly intercontinental in range (TRT: 27:28).

Opening titles: “On Target” over a monitor display resembling a flatlining EKG. A rotating beacon light (0:09). A man in silhouette smokes a cigarette. A hearse-like station wagon pulls away from a parking lot, followed by a “Leonard Bros.” truck hauling a covered ICBM (0:25). The two vehicles on the road, destined for Cape Canaveral, Florida. Driving through snow (1:17). Arriving at “Convair Astronautics” (1:59). The Florida headquarters of the “Air Force Missile Test Center.” Exterior “AFMTC Central Control Blvd.” Satellite dish antennas and a waving U.S. flag. (2:31). Antennas of the AZUSA ground-based radar tracking system at the Air Force Eastern Test Range. Telemetry antennas rotate into position (3:12). An Atlas ICBM erected in a Cape Canaveral launch service tower. Pan across clouds (3:37). A control tower on the island of San Salvador. A sign alongside a doorway: “Central Control.” Inside, engineers and flight controllers speak on radio headsets (4:03). Outdoors, various antennas rotate into position, taking readings (4:43). Spinning memory reels of magnetic tape record data. Engineers plot the course of the Atlas on instrument panels (5:17). Station 9A at Antigua in the Caribbean. A Kennedy high-gain antenna (HGA) and a receiver building (6:34). A meteorologist releases a weather balloon (7:48). A ship at sea acts as a mobile tracking station near Trinidad. An engineer uses a radar system (8:17). A jeep at Antigua’s station. Inside, engineers put on headsets and speak, flipping switches (9:05). Cargo is unloaded from a ship and into a truck (10:04). A U.S. Air Force jet airliner takes off. Aerial photography of a control tower (10:46). Pad 13 at Cape Canaveral. The rocket payload is hoisted into position. Closeups on engineers wearing sunglasses, hardhats (11:46). The nose cone data capsule (12:24). Mission control. Engineers speak on telephones. A telemetering trailer: “Authorized Personnel Only” (12:43). Blips pulse on a radar monitor (13:18). Magnetic memory reels (13:37). Launch day. Closeup on the rocket “4B” at Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 13 (13:50). The service tower retracts, exposing the gleaming rocket (14:23). A digital clock counts down. Men wait with anticipation in control rooms (15:39). Storm clouds gather and thunder is heard (16:17). A delay is encountered (17:15). Cameras rotate into position. The test area is evacuated (17:45). A montage of instrument panels, employees, and support aircraft at the ready. Clear skies prevail (19:01). All systems are “go” with 4 minutes until launch (20:04). A General Electric console. Switches are flipped. A periscope viewer is checked (21:03). The rocket is all clear, as the final supports are released (21:36). The final countdown (22:15). The Atlas rocket’s engine ignites. Blastoff. The rocket takes off. An observatory dome tracks its flight (22:38). A tracking map charts the flight of the Atlas ICBM (23:55). Quiet at mission control. Radar antennas maneuver. Data printouts continue. The rocket continues “off the charts” (24:53). The launch crew celebrates the news that the nose cone has separated successfully (25:56). The narrator boasts of a direct hit on a target in the Atlantic Ocean and the possibility of “instant retaliation” (26:45). End titles (27:14).


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