The SM-65 Atlas was the first operational intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) developed by the United States and the first member of the Atlas rocket family. It was built for the U.S. Air Force by the Convair Division of General Dynamics at an assembly plant located in Kearny Mesa, San Diego. The development of the Atlas begun in 1946, but over the next few years the project underwent several cancellations and re-starts. The deepening of the Cold War and intelligence showing the Soviet Union was working on an ICBM design led to it becoming a crash project in late 1952, along with the creation of several other missile projects to ensure one would enter service as soon as possible. The first test launch was carried out in June 1957, which failed. The first success of the Soviet R-7 Semyorka in August gave the program new urgency, leading to the first successful Atlas A launch in December. Of the eight flights of the A model, only three were successful, but the later models demonstrated increasing reliability and the D model was cleared for use. Atlas C was declared operational in September 1959. Even at that time it was considered less than ideal as it had to be fuelled immediately before launch and thus had very slow reaction times. The Air Force still saw its strategic bombers as its primary force and considered Atlas as a last-ditch weapon that would ensure a counterattack in the case the Soviets attempted a sneak attack on the US bomber bases. The initial versions were stored at ground level and thus subject to attack by Soviet bombers, which greatly reduced their suitability for this role. Starting with the F models they were stored in underground silos that offered some protection from air attack. New designs, especially the Minuteman, rendered Atlas obsolete and it was retired from the ICBM role by 1965. These disadvantages had no bearing on its use for space launches, and Atlas-derived launch vehicles served as launchers for NASA for four decades. Even before its ICBM use ended in 1965, Atlas had placed four Project Mercury astronauts in orbit and was becoming the foundation for a family of successful space launch vehicles, most notably Atlas Agena and Atlas Centaur. Mergers led to the acquisition of the Atlas Centaur line by the United Launch Alliance. Today ULA supports the larger Atlas V, which combines the Centaur upper stage with a new booster. Until 1995, many retired Atlas ICBMs were refurbished and combined with upper stages to launch satellites.
History
Atlas was the first US ICBM and one of the first large liquid-fueled rockets. As such, its early development was quite chaotic, with plans changing rapidly as flight tests revealed issues. Atlas began in 1946 with the award of an Army Air Forces research contract to a then AVCO-owned Convair for the study of a 1,500-to-5,000-mile (2,400 to 8,000 km) range missile that might at some future date carry a nuclear warhead. This MX-774 project would go on to acquire the name Atlas, a god in Greek mythology, in 1951, from the Atlas Corporation, Convair’s parent since 1947. At the onset of the project, the smallest atomic warheads were all larger than the maximum theoretical payloads of the planned long range missiles, so the contract was canceled in 1947, but the Army Air Forces allowed Convair to use the remaining contract funds to launch the three almost-completed research vehicles. The three flights were only partially successful, but did show that balloon tanks and gimbaled rocket engines were valid concepts. A second development contract was awarded to Convair on 23 January 1951 for what was then called MX-1593, with a relatively low priority. The initial design completed by Convair in 1953 was larger than the missile that eventually entered service. Estimated warhead weight was lowered from 8,000 lb (3,630 kg) to 3,000 lb (1,360 kg) based on highly favorable U.S. nuclear warhead tests in early 1954. This, in addition to the Soviet Union's 1953 Joe 4 dry fuel thermonuclear weapon test and the CIA learning that the Soviet ICBM program was making progress, led to the project being dramatically accelerated. Project Atlas was assigned the highest Air Force development priority on 14 May 1954 by General Thomas D. White. A major development and test contract was awarded to Convair on 14 January 1955 for a 10-foot (3 m) diameter missile to weigh about 250,000 lb (113,400 kg). Atlas development was tightly controlled by the Air Force's Western Development Division, WDD, later part of the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division. Contracts for warhead, guidance and propulsion were handled separately by WDD. The first successful flight of a highly instrumented Atlas missile to full range occurred 28 November 1958. Atlas ICBMs were deployed operationally from 31 October 1959 to 12 April 1965. The missile was originally designated as the XB-65 experimental bomber; in 1955 it was redesignated SM-65 ("Strategic Missile 65") and, from 1962, it became CGM-16. This letter "C" stood for "coffin" or "Container", the rocket being stored in a semi-hardened container; it was prepared for launch by being raised and fueled in the open. The Atlas-F (HGM-16) was stored vertically underground, but launched after being lifted to the surface. By 1965, with the second-generation Titan II having reached operational status, the Atlas was obsolete as a missile system and had been phased out of military use. Many of the retired Atlas D, E, and F missiles were used for space launches until the 1990s. WD-40, a penetrating oil found its first use as a corrosion-inhibiting coating for the outer skin of the Atlas missile.
Missile details
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