#thiokol

All-Terrain Chariot Filming Miniature with Interior Character Figures from Lost in Space (CBS, 1965-1968).

     There are few safer places to build and test rocket motors than the expansive Utah Desert. The underpopulated area produces few noise complaints during dramatic rocket motor tests. Over the years, Orbital ATK’s Test Services facility in Promontory, Utah, have deflagrated millions of tons of high explosives in a controlled manner. Some of these accomplishments are displayed in a rocket garden in front of the facility. Although this garden houses many treasures, I’ve showcased two significant vehicles in this photoset; the Air Force’s LGM-30A Minuteman I and the Navy’s UGM-96 Trident I.

   Minuteman I was the first intercontinental ballistic missile that used highly reliable solid propellant technology, which was much preferable to previous liquid propellant designs. Solid propellant could allow the missile to be safely stored in an underground silo, needing very little maintenance, giving the ability launch in less than a minute after the firing command was given, (hence the name “Minuteman”). Trident I brought this same technology to Navy submarines, which allows for a mobile launch pad, thus adding an element of unpredictability, giving a significant strategic advantage to the United States over the Soviet Union in the Cold War.

    While photographing these missiles, I recalled a story from my grandfather, George Curtis, who had design work in the Trident reentry vehicles for Lockheed. To this day, much of the program remains secret, so he could not share details of his work, but he did occasionally reminisce about his days in the Trident flight test program. These missiles would be launched from the West Coast of California, fly into space over Hawaii, then reenter over Kwajalein Atoll, a small Marshall Island in the Pacific, where my grandfather would be standing in the pitch dark night. He could look up and watch as the multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles separated from their bus in space. Ionized atmosphere would glow as the vehicles began their reentry. They would brightly streak toward the earth, then hit the surface at speeds in excess of 1,000 mph. After seeing this spectacle, my grandfather said, “This is what the end of the world will look like, except there will be more of them.”

hardly fair to blame them for the challenger but the first one is unforgivable