The Atlas ICBM had about 40,000 parts, and the gimballed engine system was in its infancy. Even though the growing pains were tough, telemetry gave the program a lot of information, even from the failures. Even though it was flawed, the push to close the then-assumed missile gap made such a system better than none at all. What was really amazing is that in about 18 months the first successful launch of the solid-fueled Minuteman was made. The ICBM program was really moving.

You can really see that steam exhaust plume from the turbo pump, coming out of the rocket, when they launch. These are really cool videos, thank you for the uploads.

Thank you for this videos ! When I was a kid I read about these programs and I wanted to be in one of the teams... once I became adult they had Minuteman... and the Titan was simmering off... Is not the same today, these were pioneers !

My dad was on this. Saturn. Mercury.. Atlas Was lead engineer putting in the original instrumentation at cape Canaveral. In flight engineer. Shook john glens hand on his way up the ramp. wished him safe trip.

4:48

The are 2 truths in the Universe: 1. Krillin dies a lot 2. Atlas blows up a lot.

The success rate for this program was extremely unacceptable.