ARMED FORCES: Pop-Up Polaris

From a vertical tube sunk below the main deck of the U.S.S. Observation Island, a converted merchant marine ship cruising seven miles off Cape Canaveral, Fla., a 28-ft. Polaris missile last week was popped 70 ft. upward by compressed air. At that point, the solid-fuel missile’s first-stage engine ignited with a gush of flame and white smoke, and Polaris streaked toward its ocean target. 700 miles away. It was the first successful shipbound launching of Polaris, which the U.S. Navy hopes by 1960 to be firing from submerged submarines, using the same compression chambers (similar to torpedo tubes) to propel the missile through the water into the air before igniting its engine.