European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 1, 1964, Darmstadt, Hesse                              Bolli Itic Early warning Hill pm it takes three Good radar sightings to pinpoint dependable Thors can swat by Alvin Webb up staff writer editors note a space weapon in awaiting Only a Rudefo com Mand to lend Megatons of destruction on has Long been a Nightmare in defense on presi Dent Johnson in u speech in Sacra revealed that the United states now has a shield against attack by an armed in the following up correspondent Alvon Webb who specializes in inc space reports on the two ant satellite defense systems far in the fiery Dawn off Florida East a b47 Jet bomber with a single Bullet Slung beneath its Wing raced toward a showdown with an invader from seconds 9 8 about feet Clow and to the inc latticed Metal dish of Cape canaveral radar Felt the skies with invisible 7 two blips danced on the radar screen and curved dark scars on ils greenish the streaking lows Tel its defense feta Tion at More than 400 Miles an and the space plunging toward Earth at 60 times that 4 3 aboard the the firing officers hand rested easily on a switch us the Gap Between attacker and defender closed seven Miles with each Monotone syllable of the 2 1 Zero the Swift movement of one the final human act in ibis split second tripped the switch and triggered the unique in the next the Mullion machine was shooting into driven by a solid fuelled rocket engine pouring ions of Energy and a White exhaust into the darkening the rocket became a third Blip on the canaveral radar screen and moved on a deadly near collision course toward the Dot from the Dale was birth of americas attempts to build a defense against possible space such a shield exists that was revealed when president last 17 in said we Row have developed and i sled two sys tems with the ability to intercept and destroy armed satellites one system is a Battery of aging Thor intermediate Range missiles on lonely Johnston boo Miles West South West of the other is a con Tingent of Nike zeus antimissile missiles on Kwan Alcan these Are the Tackack guns of the space age the souped up artillery to gun Down bombs or bombers travelling in As far As intelligence systems can there is no such thing As a satellite bomber either soviet or the idea of a Hydrogen bomb in awaiting Only a radio command to Send Megatons of destruction raining on has been a Nightmare in defense but for a variety of technical and political the department of defense has rarely Given scr loue consideration to any  bombardment satellite of its defense have Wor ried lest someone else develop More technical ability and correspondingly less scruples in such from that concern evolved the Cape canaveral test of in quest of an ant satellite the defense As its dueling weapon an experimental two stage missile known As bold the rocket was built by the Martin in its unsuccessful bid for an air Force contract for an air launched ballistic missile the no dead Sybolt the enemy invader was americal own explorer a 142pound satellite that had rendered excellent scientific service since ils leap into space on the preen coins explorer 6 became inc target on that particular october the Low Point of its Orbell came within about 120 Miles of Cape within Range of bold Orion and its Dummy the missile reportedly missed the satellite by four but it was a remarkable feat of guidance and a solid Success on a measuring Slick of if explorer 6 had been a space if bold Orion had been an if it had exploded a warhead tit the right then the satellite would have been the defense department was and the whole business might have ambled leisurely along for had the soviet Union not tweaked some Nerus with the seven ton sputnik 8 it orbited on using sputnik 8 As a platform in the russians fired a Small probe out Ward toward the planet defense chiefs what if the payload had been a nuclear warhead instead of scientific instruments and aimed downward instead of upward after one false they found the answer in a missile that Britain wrote off As a military relic nearly two years the department resurrected a proposal made a year earlier by capt Rpbert f chief of the Navy office of before the House space Frietag suggested that a missile could the stars and stripes