atlas2a

Splendid Photo

This brings back a LOT of memories of my first trip to Cape Canaveral, in 1963. On my first evening in Cocoa ( the mainland side of the ICW from Cocoa Beach ) our car was detoured around an accident that I was sure was one of these trailers with an Atlas on board. Even from three blocks away, you could see that the street had collapsed, stranding the trailer with one set of wheels in a hole. The local cops wouldn't let my father stop the car, so I thought I had missed my chance to see an Atlas, up close. The next day, I read in the local paper that the vehicle we saw was one of those big, stainless steel, milk-hauling trailers, the kind with the tapered front end that just LOOKS like an Atlas on its side. Well, it looked like an Atlas to a sixteen yearold Space Cadet, anyway. Later, that night, I got to see my first launch ( a Pershing I) from just outside the main gate to The Cape. The next day, I got to see my first real Atlas, in a display the USAF had set up along US A-1-A, on the lawn of the HQ building at Patrick AFB.

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Note the Shell gas station sign (far left center). Wonder how much gallons of gas it took to fill up an Atlas trailer.