Leon Metz Southwest Chronicle Edu©Educational.Dual Language Leon Metz Spring 2015 | Page 27

NEW MEXICO EL CACIQUE. GIVE THE GIFT OF LEARNING. OUR HISTORY IS THE BEGINNING.©

NUCLEAR BOMB DROPPED

ALBUQUERQUE NEW MEXICO 1957

■ The Southwest Chronicle EDU© : New Mex White Sands Missile Range
Albuquerque NM’s Kirtland
AFB May 27, 1957 -The Mark
mass-produced hydrogen bombs
deployed by the United States.
The two differed in their “primary” stages. The MK 17/24 bombs
were 24 feet 8 inches (7.52 m)
long, 61.4 inches (1.56 m) diameter. They weighed 21 tons. The
Mark 17 had a yield in the range
of 10 to 15 megatons TNT equivalent. Total production of Mk 17s
was 200, and there were 105 Mk
24s produced, all between October 1954 and November 1955.
On May 27, 1957 a Mark 17 was
unintentionally jettisoned from a
B-36 just south of Albuquerque,
NM’s Kirtland AFB. The device
fell through the closed bomb bay
doors of the bomber, which was
approaching Kirtland at an altitude of 1,700 feet. The device’s
conventional explosives destroy-

ed it on impact, leaving a crater
25 ft in diameter and 12 ft deep.
Though a chain reaction was impossible because the plutonium
pits were stored separately on the
plane, the incident spread radioactive contamination and debris
over a mile-wide area. Although
the military cleaned up the site
in secret, a few fragments of the
bomb - some radioactive still may be found in the area. It is one
of more than 30 known “Broken
Arrow” incidents involving the
accidental loss or destruction of a
nuclear weapon.

“Development originated when Los Alamos
National Laboratory proposed that a bomb design
using lithium deuteride with
non-enriched lithium was possible.”

SILICON VALLEY

MASTER MINDS OF 1957

THE TRANSISTOR

■May 25, 1961 -President John
F. Kennedy announces the space
program, with the ultimate goal of
landing a man on the moon and returning him to Earth.

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ALBUQUERQUE KIRTLAND AFB 1953
The new design was designated TX-17 on February 24, 1953. The TX-17 and 24 were tested as the
“Runt” (Castle Romeo shot) device during Operation Castle in 1954. After the successful tests, basic versions of the Mk-17 and 24 were deployed
as part of the “Emergency Capability” program. A
total of 5 EC 17 and 10 EC 24 bombs were rushed
into stockpile between April and October 1954.
The EC weapons lacked parachutes to delay the
time between release and their detonation, ensuring the delivery aircraft would be destroyed with
the target. Other safety features were also omitted.
CIRCUIT WAR

CARLSBAD CAVERNS DISCOVERED 1901

OF 1962

■ 1962

suit against Fairchild Semiconductor for patent interference, claiming ownership of the integrated
circuit concept.
■ 1964 -By 1964, Fairchild Semi-

conductor produces more than
100,000 integrated circuits for the
Apollo space program.

CAVERNS

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