NW074 1/144 Jupiter

IRBM - Cuban Crisis missile

Bioflight 2 - first living creatures recovered from space

The Army's Redstone Arsenal started the Jupiter program in 1954 as a 1600 km (1000 mile) range development of the PGM-11 Redstone. When the SM-75/PGM-17 Thor IRBM development was approved in 1955, the Army was ordered to develop Jupiter in collaboration with the U.S. Navy as a sea-launched missile. However, a liquid-fueled rocket was incompatible with the Navy's ship-borne safety requirements, and therefore the Navy began development of a solid-fueled Jupiter derivative (called Jupiter S) in February 1956. The Jupiter S was soon cancelled, however, being replaced by the UGM-27 Polaris SLBM. Thanks to original Navy requirements to store it in submarines, Jupiter was much shorter and fatter, and used a gimballed rocket nozzle instead of fins for stability and control.
In 1959, the USA had negotiated with Italy and Turkey to base the Jupiter in these countries. The first SM-78 squadrons became fully operational in Italy and Turkey in June and November 1961, respectively. After a few months, control of the Jupiter squadrons was turned over to Italian/Turkish troops. In total, 30 missiles were deployed to Italy, and 15 to Turkey.Jupiters were withdrawn in secret exchange for the withdrawal of Soviet R-5 missiles from Cuba.
Jupiter IRBM AM-18 Bioflight 2
The significant mission of the missile was to test the effects of cosmic radiation, increased gravity, and weightlessness on live passengers and biomedical experiments of material housed in the nose cone. On board were an American-born rhesus monkey, Able; a squirrel monkey, Baker; and the biomedical experiments -- yeast , corn, mustard seeds, fruit-fly larvae, human blood, mould spore, and fish eggs. Able and Baker were recovered unharmed within one and one-half hours after lift-off. This milestone marked the first recovery of living creatures from a flight through near space.