Thermonuclear Warhead GE AVCO Mark 5 Test

Creator

Center for Digital Heritage and Geospatial Information

Files

Publication Date

2022

Abstract

Photogrammetry (color removed ) model from our digital program with the Space Launch Delta 45 Program. The Mark 5 Reentry vehicle was used on the LGM-30 Minuteman I & II ICBMs to protect its warhead as it reentered the atmosphere. The steel honeycomb structure has a quartz resin coating that burns away during reentry to dissipate the heat. Inside the reentry vehicle is a Type W59 thermonuclear warhead with a yield equivalent to one million tons of TNT. Test launches of Minuteman I missiles began in February 1961 at LC-31 on the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The first operational missiles came into service in October 1962. This Mark 5 was launched from Vandenberg AFB, California, in the early 1960’s as part of a test exercise. The piece was recovered from the target site at Eniwetok Atoll and given to the Air Force Space and Missile Museum in 1965 and is today on display at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Streaming Media

Keywords

VR, AR, Museums, Preservation, Space engineers, Cold War, Nuclear bomb, 3D Laser scanning, Space history, Weapons, War, Digital Heritage and Humanities Collections

Extent

1 3-D Model

Recommended Citation

Center for Digital Heritage and Geospatial Information, "Thermonuclear Warhead GE AVCO Mark 5 Test" (2022). Cape Canaveral Space Force Station – 3D Historic Launch Complexes. 37.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cdhgi_cape_canaveral_3d/37