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Polaris -
Cigar-shaped rocket ship seen on the children's
sci-fi series TOM CORBETT, SPACE
CADET/CBS/ABC/NBC/DUM/1950-55.
Based in 2350s, the Polaris was the greatest
rocket cruiser in Commander Arkwright's fleet
flown by the Space Cadets of Space Academy.
Its crew included:
- Tom Corbett (Frankie Thomas), a curly Senior Space Cadet
- Cadet Roger Manning (Jan Merlin), the ship's radar man
- Cadet Astro (Al Markim), a Spock-like Venusian
- Cadet Rattison (Frank Sutton)
- Captain Strong (Michael Harvey/Edward Bryce)
Cadets Tom Corbett
and Astro seen through rocketship's window
The Polaris which took off vertically, sported
small landing fins at the base of the rocket
which ran up one-fourth the length of the ship.
Other space academy ships used on the program
were the Falcon, the Hydro, the Orion, the
Sirius and the Vega.
Pilots used the Tele-Transceivers for visual
communications with the Space Academy and the
Strato-Screen for exploring the depths of space.
For defense they used the Paralo-Ray which
caused temporary paralysis.
Space Academy
TRIVIA NOTE: In astronomy, Polaris (a.k.a. "The
North Star") is the name of the star nearest the
north celestial pole, located in the Little
Dipper portion of the constellation Ursa Minor
some 430 light-years from Earth .
It is an important star in navigation charts.
Louis Marx Company produced a 3.5" x 12.5" x
3.5" tall litho tin windup rocket ship version
of Polaris. A piece of flint beneath the tail
fin made sparks when the toy moved.
"Polaris" was also the name of a two-stage
solid-fuel nuclear-armed missile built by
Lockheed for the US NAVY submarine fleets in the
1960s. The Polaris missiles were replaced by
Poseidon and Trident I missiles.
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