Space flight enthusiasts talk confidently about trips to the moon, but so far no rocket, even an unmanned one, has climbed more than 0.25% of the distanceabout 600 miles, unofficially credited to the Lockheed X17. The first vehicle to make a really big stride into space will probably be a cheap, unstreamlined, unglamorous, four-stage job assembled out of familiar rocket hardware by Aeronutronic Systems, Inc., a Ford Motor Co. subsidiary at Glendale, Calif. Its gimmick: it will start at 100,000 ft. from a balloon.
Battling Air. When rockets are fired from the earth's surface, they...
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