The release created a white smoke trail which when photographed from two cameras situated 10–12 miles from the launch site and 90 degrees apart.

[3] Its cone-shaped tip, with an air intake tube, a tank and an exhaust valve, was specially developed for the mission.

In the tank were placed 37 litres of titanium tetrachloride in order to produce a highly reflective and dense smoke trail, hence its name.

[7][2] The rocket proved to be an effective and cheap method to study wind patterns at high altitudes.

[7] Before this rocket studies of horizontal winds at high altitudes were carried out using research balloons, with very sparse graphic results where important variations were not recorded Using Nike Smoke, the procedures for each launch were as follows:[7]