[fso301]

This was first proposed back in the sixties as something to do with one of the early Atlas rocket designs that accelerated like a scalded cat and produced too many gees for anything the Air Force had at that time. They did a study on this very idea but it never went anywhere.

I seem to recall the issue was launch signature. Didn't want the Ruskies to think we were launching a MIRV tipped ICBM.

[Bean Counter]

right....that was another issue. The whole “rod from God” was proposed because someone did a calculation and figured that the booster really could throw a solid tungsten rod that big.

As I recall it was one of those early liquid fueled beasts that used red fuming nitric acid for oxidizer and who knows what else for propellant. The rocket was hot all right, but if you fueled it, you had to launch it; because it wouldn’t survive the defueling process on the ground. The safest way to defuel the damned thing was to launch it and hope it got far enough away before it blew...

Ah.....the early days of the Space program....