The SM-65D Atlas, or Atlas D, was the first operational version of the U.S. Atlas missile. Atlas D was first used as an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) to deliver a nuclear weapon payload on a suborbital trajectory. It was later developed as a launch vehicle to carry a payload to low Earth orbit on its own, and later to geosynchronous orbit, to the Moon, Venus, or Mars with the Agena or Centaur upper stage.
564th Strategic Missile Squadron Convair SM-65D Atlas missile 58-220, pad 564-A2, Warren I site, F. E. Warren AFB, Wyoming
Atlas 71D, 13 October 1960
Launch of OV1-11, OV1-12, and OV1-86 on 27 July 1967
The SM-65 Atlas was the first operational intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) developed by the United States and the first member of the Atlas rocket family. It was built for the U.S. Air Force by the Convair Division of General Dynamics at an assembly plant located in Kearny Mesa, San Diego.
Atlas 2E missile, San Diego Aerospace Museum
Theodore von Kármán, left, is joined by Air Force and NASA officials while inspecting two of the models used in the high velocity, high altitude wind tunnels at Arnold Air Force Base. The missiles are AGARD-B and Atlas Series-B. (1959)
Atlas, test number 449, Air Force Missile Test Center.
Launch of an Atlas B ICBM.