Missile Count Down

Along with reports that both an Atlas ICBM and a satellite-carrying Vanguard rocket will be launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla. in early December, the week brought solid missile news. Items:

P:A committee of eight top Administration civilian officials flashed the production green light for both the Air Force's Thor and its intermediate-range (1,500 mi.) Army rival Jupiter, temporarily resolving the two missiles' nose-and-nose race for survival. Both IRBMs have flown successfully three times, and both have flopped several times. Only last week a Jupiter rocketed away promisingly from its Cape Canaveral launching pad, was exploded a few minutes later--"because of technical difficulties," said the Army's inscrutable announcement. As Defense Secretary Neil McElroy admitted, neither Douglas Aircraft Co.'s Thor nor Redstone Arsenal's Jupiter (future manufacturer: Chrysler Corp.) is "a thoroughly proved missile," but the urgent need for IRBMs to arm both the U.S. and NATO makes it desirable to go ahead with production of both missiles without waiting months for additional tests to show which has the performance edge.

P:Air Force Chief of Staff Thomas D. White (TIME, Nov. 25) served public notice that the Strategic Air Command is firmly and officially in the ballistic-missile business. The Air Force has decided, said General White, to shift "responsibility for the initial operational capability phase of both the IRBM and ICBM programs" from the Air Research and Development Command to SAC.

P:To head the new Ballistic Missile Force, SAC's Commanding General Thomas S. Power tapped strapping (6 ft. 4 in., 225 Ibs.) Major General David Wade, 47, SAC chief of staff since mid-1956. A veteran bomber pilot, Louisiana-born General Wade saw Air Force duty in two wars, but he carried out his most daring exploit on the ground: stationed in Japan during the Korean War as commander of a B-29 wing, he won the Soldier's Medal for plunging into the burning wreckage of a fighter plane and hauling the pilot to safety.

P:General White also confirmed that the Air Force is working on a contramissile (antimissile missile). Name: Wizard. Making a contramissile accurate enough to intercept an enemy ballistic missile "will be a terrifically difficult problem," said White, "but I think we will lick it."

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