DEFENSE: Second Generation's First

The Air Force's Titan intercontinental ballistic missile, black-and-white-striped and tall as a ten-story building, boomed off the launching pad at Cape Canaveral last week, roared up 50 miles or so through a long-awaited break in the grey overcast, plopped its no tons into the warm Atlantic 300 miles downrange (maximum hoped-for range: 9,000 miles). The U.S.'s first successful firing of a second-generation ICBM (after Atlas) brought cheers from airmen and Titan's Martin Co. crew, weary from a two-month fight against the gremlins that unaccountably popped its umbilical cord and played other tricks on five previous countdowns. Since two...