 It is the early morning of a representative test day. Engineers and technicians are on their way to widely spread range stations, some separated by more than a hundred miles. Though quiet at this early hour, this range control station will soon serve as the busy center for far-flung test activities. This man is a range controller. His job is to coordinate operations for the upcoming tests. An Army Nike Zeus anti-missile missile under advanced development will attempt to intercept a supersonic Nike Hercules. With the desert dawn, equipment is being checked out all over the immense range. The huge Nike Zeus radars stand by. An extensive range communications complex is manned, telephone systems, radio, wire, and microwave nets. The target missile is poised for flight. Nike Zeus waits. In the Nike Zeus blockhouse, preparations for firing proceed in conformance with the countdown. Hundreds of range stations are supporting the test. Range distribution centers relay timing codes by radio and wire to scores of missile tracking instruments, both optical and electronic. Each instrument records the timing codes to synchronize data from all systems. As the countdown steadily approaches zero, personnel wait to recover test debris. Overhead, recovery planes are prepared to spot the point of impact. Military policemen get the word to close off traffic on US Highway 70. Emergency equipment stands by. Computers are programmed for almost instantaneous direction of tracking instruments, calculation of data, and display of flight information. Meteorological crews constantly measure wind speed and direction. Frequency monitoring stations watch for unauthorized electromagnetic signals. Minutes remain. Coordinators of the various tracking systems report their status. All scenery outlight stations are green. All tracking telescopes are green. Special instruments are green. Placimus, Dove, Elsie, MDI, all green. Communications are green. Light surveillance is green. Radar is green. All stations, all stations, the range is green. Pour the target missile that countdown nears the fire command. In seconds, Nike Zeus will seek a rendezvous with its supersonic target. High-speed fixed cameras of great precision are set to record the launch phase of flight, measuring position, velocity, and acceleration. The mammoth Nike Zeus radars are in operation. Seconds to go. Time is 3, 2, 1, go. Cine-theodolites photograph the missile as well as azimuth and elevation readings for highly precise position data. Velosimeters measure radial velocity. The Nike Zeus seeks the target. Telemetry antennas receive information by radio on hundreds of missile functions. Extremely accurate ballistic cameras record the flight for charting against known star positions. Powerful tracking telescopes photograph specific events of flight, booster separation, burnout, and intercept. Range-wide chain radar system collects trajectory data. Radar plotting boards are watched intently by flight safety personnel. Should the plot indicate a straying missile, the destruct button will be pressed. The Nike Zeus closes in on its prey. Uprange technicians receive radar data for training their instruments on the proper point in the sky. Here is how a tracking telescope recorded the actual intercept of Nike Hercules by Nike Zeus. Alert recovery aircraft observe points of impact of test debris. Soon ground crews are busy retrieving instruments and components. This expenditure of effort is justified by the great value of recovered parts to the missile designers. Into this building, uprange, and this one, downrange, flow all the data film, charts, and magnetic tape that were recorded during the test. Here the millions of bits of information are reduced to usable form and data from the various systems correlated. The last of many complicated steps is publication of the final reports for use by missile development and testing agencies. Here are the indispensable facts and figures upon which progress in missile rate depends.