CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Nov. 26--A towering Atlas-Able rocket plunged into the Atlantic early today in a futile bid to hurl a satellite about the moon.

The failure was a bitter disappointment to missilemen who hoped to put the United States back into the space race with Russia. It probably means that the Russians will hold their long lead in space exploration for at least another year.

The United States does not have another rocket for this shot, and it will be next fall before a rocket is ready which can match the present Soviet Luniks.

Dr. John Lindsay, head of NASA's solar physics program, reported the space agency has a duplicate moon satellite but no rocket to put it up.

Holiday Deaths Mount

WASHINGTON, Nov. 26--Deaths in Thanksgiving Day traffic increased slowly and steadily.

The count in the first 24-hour period of the long holiday weekend was well below the annual average of around 100 per day.

The weather was a big factor. Snow and icy roads in much of the north tended to discourage motoring and to hold down speed.

But the holiday period that began at 6 p.m. local time Wednesday will run to midnight Sunday. Heavier travel in the remainder of the 102-hour period may bring a change in the early pattern.

The 1958 Thanksgiving weekend--also four days--had a toll of 454 deaths in traffic, 54 in fires and 118 in miscellaneous brackets for a total of 626.

Burney Cautions Smokers

WASHINGTON, Nov. 26--The weight of evidence implicates smoking as the main cause of rising lung cancer, the government's chief health officer declared Thursday.

This statement by Surgeon General Leroy E. Burney was the furthest the Public Health Service ever has gone in linking smoking and lung cancer.

Burney put the finger on cigarette smoking as carrying the greatest risk. And he said filter tips developed so far do not do a good enough job of straining out tars.