ICBM Thermonuclear Warhead Reentry Vehicle

Creator

Center for Digital Heritage and Geospatial Information

Files

Publication Date

2022

Abstract

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 at the Sands Space History Center Museum just outside the south gate.

Streaming Media

Keywords

Missiles, Museums, Minuteman, ICBM, Nuclear bomb, Cape Canaveral, Missile systems, Weapons, Space Force, SLD 45

Extent

1 3-D Model

Recommended Citation

Center for Digital Heritage and Geospatial Information, "ICBM Thermonuclear Warhead Reentry Vehicle" (2022). Cape Canaveral Space Force Station – 3D Historic Launch Complexes. 41.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cdhgi_cape_canaveral_3d/41