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| | Spaceflight :Atlas |
 | | The basic Atlas vehicle, remarkably unchanged almost 50 years after its inception, is a 1½ stage liquid-propellant launch vehicle consisting of a booster section and a sustainer section, a unique configuration that enables the missile to launch itself into orbit. |
 | | Vandenberg Air Force Base, California was activated, even before the first successful launch of the Atlas D. The Air Force formally accepted the Atlas on September 1, 1959, and the missile was declared "operational" about a week later when an Atlas D ICBM was successfully launched from Vandenberg. |
 | | Atlas model D, E, and F ICBMs, outfitted with nuclear warheads, were deployed at Air Force bases throughout the United States, stored vertically in underground silos and raised by elevators to an above-ground position for launch. |
| www.centennialofflight.gov /essay/SPACEFLIGHT/Atlas/SP10.htm (1696 words) |
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