Missile Testing Program One of the more amazing factors in the JUPITER development program was the small amount of time that elapsed between program approval and the actual flight testing of a missile that resembled the final tactical configuration—November 1955 until March 1957. By comparison, the time frame was even more compressed than the REDSTONE program—July 1950 to August 1953—but this system was the key to the JUPITER success story. In many respects, JUPITER components were product improvements of REDSTONE counterparts. During the previously-mentioned missile study years of 1954 and 1955, the Redstone Arsenal group had made wind tunnel tests of model missiles of every conceivable shape and form. Added to this, they had the flight analysis of the REDSTONES. So when the JUPITER requirement came along, they knew what configurations would fly. Even the forced reduction in length had no ill effects on the flight behavior pattern. Components within the shell followed the same "building block" formula. For example, the angle-of- attack indicator program dated back to 1952, and experience in this work was important in view of the lack of control of the re-entry body. Speaking of the nose cone, even this configuration was solved within six months of program inception, and the protective means by way of ablation was solved in nine months. Practically every part of the missile had undergone an exhaustive testing program; and, thus, the JUPITER development phase was a refinement to meet the IRBM requirements 88 . As a result, the JUPITER could have been fired in anger in 1958, and possibly in 1957—two years, more or less, after program approval. _____________________________

88. Fact Book, subj: JUP Test Results, Tab A, 22 Sep 57, Hist Off files.