One Hundred Years of Flight USAF Chronology ... - The Air University

1958
1958
January 1: The Air Force activated the 672d Strategic Missile Squadron, the
first with Thor intermediate-range ballistic missiles, at Cooke (later,
Vandenberg) Air Force Base, California.
The Thor missile, produced by Douglas Aircraft Corporation, was the free world’s
first operational intermediate-range ballistic missile.
January 15: The Air Force activated the 475th Air Defense Missile Wing to
train Bomarc missile units. The Bomarc was an unmanned, supersonic
antiaircraft missile capable of intercepting and destroying targets at
ranges between 250 and 450 nautical miles.
January 31: Explorer I, the first U.S. satellite to go into orbit, was launched by
the Army’s Jupiter C rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
February 1: Francis E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming, became the first
intercontinental ballistic missile base of Strategic Air Command.
February 27: Missile director William M. Holaday approved the Minuteman
Project, a program for building 5,000-mile-range solid-fuel ballistic
missiles launched from underground installations.
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