Stainless steel cone covered with unknown material that has been painted white. The material is smooth and shows no signs of charring. In this regard, Gen. Medairis's Daily Journal entry (a copy of which is in the Registrars File) indicates that the flown ablative material was "peeled off" before the nose cone went to the White House in November 1957. There is no documentation available on whether the material on it now is the underbody of the original Rockide ablative coating or was attached after the August 1957 flight. However, two scientists from the Applied Physics Lab (Paul Biermann and Ed Ott) who inspected the nose cone on 1 June 2006 said it is probably the underbody since they saw sensors paths in it. A stainless steel plate is welded and bolted to the aft end. Whether this is original equipment is not known. There is no instrumentation inside, but there are fittings that were probably used for thermocouples and other sensors.