On 28 Sept., 1977 at 1533 GMT, a Talos Castor rocket carrying the SPIRE payload was launched from the Poker Flat Research Range, Alaska. The objective of the SPIRE experiment, which was supported by the Defense Nuclear Agency, was to obtain infrared emission spectra of the earth's upper atmosophere in a limb-viewing geometry to test theoretical predictions of enhanced nuclear backgrounds. Two cryogenically cooled CVF spectrometers and a dual channel photometer were used to spatially and spectrally map the horizon from 5000 Angstrom to 16.5 micro m. All three sensors were telescoped with low scatter optics that resolved an 8-km footprint at the limb while rejecting competitive terrestrial and solar radiation. SPIRE successfully achieved all major objectives, making near simultaneous spectral measurements of both the sunlit and night earth limb in the SWIR and LWIR. Many of the atmosphere's infrared-active species were observed during some 12 separate elevation scans at different azimuth angles from the sun. These include OH, NO, CO2, H2O, O3, and HNO3. (Author).