MIflyer
Captain
USAF Atlas CGM-16E 76E ICBM converted to a space booster and processed on SLC-3W at Vandenberg AFB, December 1981. Payload was a GPS spacecraft, Navstar 7. Sadly, an engine failure led the vehicle to impact at 19.8 sec after liftoff. This was the last Atlas failure at VAFB. Twenty six Atlas ICBMs were destroyed in the early 1970's, mostly by running them over with bulldozers. The Space Shuttle was supposed to replace all expendable boosters and so they were not needed. In reality we could convert the Atlas ICBM's into space boosters and launch them for about $15M each, while the Shuttle was supposed to cost only $14M per launch but in reality cost at least $250M for each launch and could have cost $1.5 Billion per launch, depending on how you counted the money.
