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Message:: [QUOTE="Skyman, post: 3053537, member: 28299"]It's a Juno I rocket.  My best guess, what appears to be a launch platform is actually a poorly realized design (or a poor design, period) of the launch gases as the rocket lifts off.  As mentioned by [USER=71723]@V. Kurt Bellman[/USER], it was used to launch Explorer 1, the first successful US orbital mission.  FWIW, the Juno was a modified Jupiter rocket (specifically a Jupiter-C) with a 4th stage mounted on top. While I don't know about all the unmanned launches, to the best of my knowledge the US only used a launch platform for the 3 manned Skylab missions and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP).  The reason for this was these four missions used the Saturn I-B rocket AFTER the Saturn V missions were completed.  The Saturn V was SIGNIFICANTLY larger than the I-B, so to use the same launch pad a (so called "milking stool") launch platform was constructed, so that the Saturn V launch tower architecture did not have to be changed. Here's a "double exposure" picture of the Skylab launch vehicles.  On the left is the Skylab space station.  It was the last Saturn V ever used (albeit the 3rd stage was modified from the "standard" format used for the manned Saturn V missions).  On the right is the Saturn I-B rocket used to launch men to the Skylab space station.  Notice the "milking stool". [ATTACH=full]764542[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]