Photo Gallery: Atlas Missile Launcher

by Will Williams Last updated on:

On the windswept plains of southern Wyoming, huge concrete coffin like structures tower out of the grass. The decaying hulks once held the Untied States first ICBM, the Atlas D missile, SM-65. Dubbed “coffin launchers” because the missile was stored horizontally and then raised through the sliding roof. These weapons, 100 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Nagasaki had a short operational life from 31st of October 1959 to 12th April 1965.