Launch of V-2 rocket at White Sands,New Mexico. Weather and wind velocity checks are made, radar devices are adjusted. In the Block house crew members begin the countdown for the rocket launch and launch it into space. They keep a check on the course of rocket through radar. Crew maps the point of impact and moves to the site. Collect the wreckage of missile to the launching station for analysis. Scene of conference held to discuss the performance of missile. 1947.
Scenes of the South Western region of the United States. A map shows Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado. Scenic sweeping wide views of Mountains, plains and canyons in the United States in lofty mountainous area. View of the Grand Canyon. Tourists visit ruins. Ruins of Aztec dwellings in the Chaco Canyon area. The Pueblos at Santa Fe. Native American Indian Navaho Indians weave rugs. Indian Men and cowboys on wheel carts and horses in a dry area. Women sow seeds in the farm. Cattle grazing and Sheep graze in a field. A copper mine.
View of the headquarters building for the newspaper Los Alamos Times in the Los Alamos county of New Mexico, United States. A Native American Indian worker with two plait braids is seen taking printed newspapers off of the newspaper printing machine.
Los Alamos Atomic Energy Commission Scientific Laboratory in New Mexico and mountains in the background. Scientists work with diagrams of nuclear reactors. Different equipment and nuclear rocket designs. Prototype of Nuclear reactor is made. Technicians work with KIWI experimental reactors. Towers and buildings in desert. KIWI reactor is checked in nuclear assembly. Reactor is taken to the testing area on a special rail car. Man works at a remote station to control the car. Liquid hydrogen is pumped into the reactor on rail car from near by storage tanks. Reactor tested on test stand shows flaming torch. Reactor transported for disassembly and inspection on car by remote control. Men use remote control manipulators for inspection. Exhaust gas from other reactor on test stand. Men work on diagrams. Narrator discusses next step as the NERVA program (Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Applications), a combined government and private industry (Aerojet and Westinghouse) effort headed by the Space Nuclear Propulsion Office (SNPO). Animated nuclear thermal rocket shown with NERVA technology ( Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application), given the letter designation NRX.
A German V-2 rocket is launched and tested at the White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico. The V-2 is raised into firing position from top of a special elevating trailer or carryall machinery. The warhead of the V-2 rocket. Final firing preparations shows workers standing on a platform at the base of the rocket.
A radar tracking station at a German V-2 rocket test site in the White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico. The large radar tracking station shows radar equipment in operation. Heavy power lines lead to the station.