simulating reentry velocities and conditions with a three-stage solid-fuel Lockheed X-17.
A total of 26 X-17 flights were conducted until March 1957.
1958 Aug 27 -Launch Site USS Norton Sound Launch Complex
Argus 1
The Argus series were the only clandestine nuclear ever conducted by the United States.The rocket-launched nuclear warheads were set off at very high altitudes over the South Atlantic,1800 km south-west of Capetown,South Africa. The purpose was to determine the effects of nuclear tests explosions on the Earth’s
magnetic field and the impact to military radar, communications, satellites and ballistic missiles electronics. The earth’s magnetic field is not only off-axis from the earth,but also off centre from the earth’s core. This means the Van Allen Radiation belts are closest to the earth in the region known as the ‘South Atlantic Anomaly’.