It was a clear, calm night at Cape Canaveral. The Army, making its first attempt to shoot the moon, had spent weeks fussing over the Juno II, a 60-ton Jupiter IRBM with a spike of high-speed rockets mounted on its nose. At twelve seconds after 12:45 a.m., almost exactly on schedule, Juno II took off. It climbed loudly but smoothly, arching slightly north of east. For about three minutes the first-stage rocket burned brightly, diminishing slowly with distance. Then its power shut off, and the upper stages coasted flameless for 55 seconds. About 110...
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