50th anniversary of first Atlas launch

I remember that launch (I was 12 and already a 'space nut') -- the car radio
we were listening to, on our way to the beach, broke into the music program
to breathlessly announce the blastoff. A few minutes later, they broke in
again to announce it had exploded. And later in the days, there was a flurry
of radio rumors that the explosion was only a cover story and that the
missile had reached 'outer space' and was drifting there, "orbiting". In
those days, anything was thought possible.

He
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/m...1n11atlas.html