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Atlas ICBM

Atlas ICBM

The Atlas is a venerable line of space launch vehicles built by Lockheed Martin. Originally designed as an ICBM in the late 1950s, the Atlas is today used as a launch platform for commercial and military satellites, and other space vehicles.

History

The Atlas, first tested in 1959, was the United States' first successful ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile). It was a "1.5 stage", liquid-fueled (LOX and RP-1) rocket, with three engines producing 1,590 kN of thrust. Atlas was originally developed by the Convair company for the USAF with work on an intermediate range missle beginning in 1947. In 1955 the CIA learned that the Soviet ICBM programme was making progress so Atlas became a crash programme of the highest national importance. The missile was originally given the military designation "XB-65", thus making it a bomber; from 1955 it was redesignated "SM-65" and, from 1962, it became "CGM-16". This letter "C" stood for "coffin" or "Container", the rocket being stored in a hardened container; it was prepared for launch by being raised and fueled in the open. The Atlas-F (HGM-16) was stored vertically underground, but launched after being lifted to the surface. The Atlas never was used in a missile silo, deep underground. From the mid-1960s, the Atlas (and its 'bigger brother', the Titan) were phased out in favour of the LGM-30 Minuteman, a solid-fuelled rocket which could be stored for long periods and launched, without fuelling, at the turn of a key. Though never used in combat, the Atlas was used as the expendable launch system for the Mariner space probes used to study Mercury, Venus, and Mars (1962–1973); and to launch ten of the Mercury program missions (1962–1963). The Mercury-Atlas missions resulted in the first American to orbit the earth (Lt. Col. John H. Glenn Jr.) in February of 1962. (Major Yuri A. Gagarin, a Soviet cosmonaut, was the first human in orbit on April 12, 1961.) Atlas launched the Agena Target Vehicles used during the Gemini program. Direct Atlas descendants continue to be used as satellite launch vehicles into the 21st century. Atlas was suggested for use by the United States Air Force in what became known as Project Vanguard. This suggestion was ultimately turned down, however, as Atlas would not be operational in time and was seen by many as being too heavily connected to the military for use in the U.S.' IGY satellite attempt. Atlas, named for the Atlas of Greek mythology, got its start in 1946 with the award of a Army Air Forces research contract to Convair for the study of a 1,500 to 5,000 mi. (2,400 to 8,000 km) range nuclear armed missile. This was the MX-774 or Hiroc project. The contract was canceled in 1947 but the Army Air Forces allowed Convair to launch the three almost-completed research vehicles using the remaining contract funds. The three flights were only partially successful. However they did show that balloon tanks, and gimbaled rocket engines were valid concepts. 1947

Mercury-Atlas Three (Orbit Flight Events- April 25, 1961)

Design

Atlas is rare in its use of balloon tanks for fuel, made of very thin stainless steel with minimal or no rigid support structures. Pressure in the tanks provides the structural rigidity required for flight. An Atlas rocket will collapse under its own weight if not kept pressurized. The only other known use of balloon tanks at the time of writing is the Centaur high-energy upper stage. Atlas also has a unique and somewhat odd staging system. Most rockets stage by dropping both engines and fuel tanks. However, when the Atlas missile was being developed, there were considerable doubts as to whether or not a rocket motor could be ignited in space. Therefore, the decision was made to ignite all three of the Atlas' engines at launch - later, two of the engines would be discarded, while the third continued to burn. Rockets using this technique are sometimes called stage and a half boosters. This technique is made possible by the extremely light weight of the balloon tanks. The tanks make up such a small percentage of the total booster weight that the weight penalty of lifting them to orbit is not offset by the technical and weight penalty required to throw half of them away mid-flight. Depending on how you look at it, this makes Atlas a single-stage-to-orbit booster (though most call it a 1.5 stage to orbit).

Current Atlas Family

- Atlas II
- Atlas III
- Atlas V
- GX The Atlas II series had 63 successful flights with the last launched August 31, 2004, it is considered the most reliable launcher in the world. The newest version of Atlas, the Atlas V, is an Atlas in name alone as it contains little Atlas technology. It no longer uses balloon tanks nor 1.5 staging, but incorporates a rigid framework for its first stage booster much like the Titan family of vehicles. Ironically, given Atlas's origin as a military weapon, the Atlas III and Atlas V use Russian-designed engines. 2004 2004

External links

- [http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/m-16.html Atlas launch vehicle profile]
- [http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/atlasd.htm Atlas D] from Encyclopedia Astronautica
- [http://www.geocities.com/atlas_missile/ Atlas ICBM History site]
- [http://www.ilslaunch.com/atlas/atlasii/ Atlas II - Lockheed Martin]

Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin is an aerospace manufacturer and advanced technology company formed in 1995 by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, a community in Montgomery County, Maryland, and employs 135,000 people worldwide. Robert J. Stevens is the current Chairman, President, and CEO. Lockheed Martin is the largest U.S. defense contractor [http://www.defensenews.com/content/features/2005chart1.html]. As of 2005, 95% of Lockheed Martin's revenues came from the U.S. Department of Defense, other U.S. federal government agencies, and foreign military customers.

History

Shortly after the creation of the company Lockheed Martin acquired the majority of Loral Corporation's defense electronics and system integration businesses for $9.1 billion. The remainder of Loral became Loral Space & Communications. In 1998 Lockheed Martin abandoned plans to merge with Northrop Grumman due to government fears of the potential strength of the new group (Lockheed/Northrop would have had control of 25% of the DoD's procurement budget). In 2000 Lockheed agreed to pay a $13 million settlement to the US government for breaching the arms export control act. The company passed information to AsiaSat, a major shareholder of which is the Chinese government. AsiaSat Lockheed Martin won the contract to build the Joint Strike Fighter in 2001 with its X-35 design. This is the most important fighter aircraft procurement project since the F-16, with an initial order of 3,000 worth $200 billion before export orders. In 2003 Lockheed Martin benefited from a USAF decision to punish Boeing for conducting industrial espionage against its rival. The USAF revoked $1 billion worth of contracts from Boeing and awarded them to Lockheed Martin. The company sued Boeing in 1998 for stealing documents related to a military contract. Lockheed Martin was formed by a "merger of equals". Below are examples of the products each company contributed to the current portfolio:
- Lockheed
- Trident missile
- F-16 Fighting Falcon (production line purchased from General Dynamics in 1993)
- F/A-22
- C-130 Hercules
- DSCS-3 satellite C-130 Hercules
- Martin Marietta
- Titan rockets
- Sandia National Laboratories (management contract acquired in 1993)
- Satellites
- A2100
- Martin Marietta 3000
- Martin Marietta 4000
- Martin Marietta 8000
- Tiros-N meteorological satellites

Corporate governance

Current members of the board of directors of Lockheed Martin are: Edward Aldridge, Nolan Archibald, Marcus Bennett, James O. Ellis, Gwendolyn King, James Loy, Douglas McCorkindale, Eugene Murphy, Joseph Ralston, Frank Savage, Anne Stevens, Robert J. Stevens, James Ukropina, and Douglas Yearley.

Divisions

External links

- [http://www.lockheedmartin.com/ Lockheed Martin website]
- [http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Lockheed_Martin Article on Lockheed Martin] from the Center for Media and Democracy
- Category:Companies based in Maryland Category:Fortune 500 companies Category:Lockheed Martin Category:United States aircraft manufacturers Category:Fort Worth, Texas Category:Companies traded on the New York Stock Exchange Category:Defense companies of the United States ja:ロッキード・マーティン

1950s

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Events and trends

The 1950s in Western society was marked with a sharp rise in the economy for the first time in almost 30 years and return to the 1920s-type consumer society built on credit and boom-times, as well as the the baby boom from returning GIs who went to college under the Montgomery G.I. Bill and settled in suburban America. Most of the internal conflicts that had developed in earlier decades like women's rights, civil rights, imperialism, and war were relatively suppressed or neglected during this time as a returning world from the brink hoped to see a more consistent way of life as opposed to liberalism and radicalism of the 1930s and 1940s. The effect of suppressing social problems in the 50s would backfire in the 60s with the counter-culture movement. The 1950s were also marked with a rapid rise in conflict with the Eastern Bloc and the Soviet Union that would heighten the Cold War to an unprecedented level which would include the Arms Race, Space Race, McCarthyism, and Korean War. Stalin's death in 1953 left an enormous impact in Eastern Europe that forced the Soviet Union to create more liberal policies internally and externally. The rise of Suburbia as well as the growing conflict with the East are the two generally accepted reasons for the conservative domination of this decade.

Technology

- United States tests the first fusion bomb. See History of nuclear weapons
- Sputnik, the first man-made satellite, and thus the Sputnik crisis
- The De Havilland Comet enters service as the world's first jet airliner
- Charles Townes builds a maser in 1953 at Columbia University.

Science

- Urey-Miller experiment shows that under simulated conditions resembling those thought to have existed shortly after Earth first accreted, many of the basic organic molecules that form the building blocks of modern life are able to spontaneously form
- Francis Crick and James D. Watson discover the helical structure of DNA at the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge
- Bruce Heezen discovers the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
- Polio vaccine
- The first organ transplants are done in Boston and Paris in 1954.

War, peace, and politics

- Korean War
- Red Scare, McCarthy Hearings
- Suez Crisis
- European Common Market founded.
- Warsaw pact founded.
- Most aboveground nuclear test explosions happened during this decade.
- The United States CIA orchestrated the overthrow of the Guatemalan government.
- Hungarian revolution of 1956 brutally suppressed by Soviet Union's troops.
- Fidel Castro gains power in Cuba.
- Mahmoud Abbas becomes involved in Palestinian politics in Qatar.
- Decolonization: Algeria, Vietnam, and elsewhere.
- Early history of the People's Republic of China, of the state of Israel, and of the Indonesian state.

Economics

- "Economic miracle" in West Germany and Italy.

Culture, religion

- Traditional pop music reaches its climax; early rock and roll music was embraced by teenagers/youth culture while generally dismissed or condemned by older generations.
- Brylcreem and other hair tonics have a period of popularity
- Television replaces radio as the dominant mass medium in industrialized countries.
- In the West, the generation traumatized by the Great Depression and World War II creates a culture with emphasis on normality and calm conformity.
- Juvenile delinquency said to be at unprecedented epidemic proportions in USA, though some see this era as relatively low in crime compared to today. Continuing poverty in some regions during recessions later on in this decade.
- Fairly high rates of unionization, government social spending, taxes, and the like in the US and European countries. Mostly liberal or moderate Western governments, though communism/Cold War play a role in reaction to, and within, domestic politics.
- Beatnik culture/ The Beat Generation
- Optimistic visions of semi-Utopian technological future including such devices as the flying car.
- The Day the Earth Stood Still hits movie theaters.
- Along with the appearance of the sentence Kilroy was here across the United States, graffiti as an art form develops, especially among urban African Americans; graffiti eventually becomes one of the four elements of hip hop
- Considerable racial tension with military and schools desegregation in the US, though controversy never truly erupts as later on in the 1960s.
- The Catcher in the Rye
- The Twilight Zone premiers as the first major science-fiction show. Rise of evangelical Christianity including Youth for Christ (1943); the National Association of Evangelicals, the American Council of Christian Churces, the Billy Graham Evagelistic Association (1950), and the Campus Crusade for Christ (1951). Christianity Today was first published in 1956. 1956 also marked the beginning of Bethany Fellowship, a small press that would grow to be a leading evangelical press.
- Carl Stuart Hamblen religious radio broadcaster.

Others

- Wartime rationing ends in the United Kingdom.

People

World leaders

- Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent (Canada)
- Prime Minister John Diefenbaker (Canada)
- Chairman Mao Zedong (People's Republic of China)
- President Chiang Kai-shek (Republic of China on Taiwan)
- President Gamal Abdel Nasser (Egypt)
- Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru (India)
- Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion (Israel)
- Emperor Hirohito (Japan)
- Pope Pius XII
- Pope John XXIII
- Taoiseach John A. Costello (Ireland)
- Taoiseach Eamon de Valera (Ireland)
- Taoiseach Sean Lemass (Ireland)
- Joseph Stalin (Soviet Union)
- Nikita Khrushchev (Soviet Union)
- King George VI (United Kingdom)
- Queen Elizabeth II (United Kingdom)
- Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill (United Kingdom)
- Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden (United Kingdom)
- Prime Minister Harold Macmillan (United Kingdom)
- Prime Minister Robert Menzies (Australia)
- Prime Minister George Borg Olivier (Malta)
- President Harry S. Truman (United States)
- President Dwight D. Eisenhower (United States)
- Chancellor Konrad Adenauer (West Germany)
- President Josip Broz Tito (Yugoslavia)

Entertainers

- Desi Arnaz
- Abbott and Costello
- Paul Anka
- Lucille Ball
- Jack Benny
- Chuck Berry
- Humphrey Bogart
- Marlon Brando
- Maria Callas
- Dalida
- James Dean
- Bo Diddley
- Margot Fonteyn
- Ava Gardner
- The Goons
- Cary Grant
- Tony Hancock
- Audrey Hepburn
- Charlton Heston
- Alfred Hitchcock
- Buddy Holly
- Grace Kelly
- Ernie Kovacs
- Mario Lanza
- Jerry Lewis
- Dean Martin
- Groucho Marx
- Marilyn Monroe
- Paul Newman
- Laurence Olivier
- Elvis Presley
- George Reeves
- Little Richard
- James Stewart
- Gale Storm
- Jerry Lee Lewis
- Jacques Tati
- Elizabeth Taylor
- John Wayne
- Jack Webb
- Ed Wynn

Sports figures

- Alberto Ascari (Italian racing driver)
- Roger Bannister (English track and field athlete)
- Yogi Berra (American baseball player)
- Maureen Connolly (American tennis player)
- Colin Cowdrey (England cricketer)
- Juan Manuel Fangio (Argentinian racing driver)
- Neil Harvey (Australian cricketer)
- Gordie Howe (Canadian ice hockey player)
- Len Hutton (England cricketer)
- Rocky Marciano (American boxer)
- Stanley Matthews (English soccer player)
- Willie Mays (American baseball player)
- Ferenc Puskás (Hungarian soccer player)
- Maurice Richard (Canadian ice hockey player)
- Sugar Ray Robinson (American boxer)
- Bill Russell (American basketball player)
- Gary Sobers (West Indies cricketer)
- Brian Statham (England cricketer)
- Frank Tyson (England cricketer)
- Frank Worrell (West Indies cricketer)
- Lev Yashin (Russian soccer player)

External links

- [http://www.fiftiesweb.com The FiftiesWeb]
- [http://vlib.iue.it/history/USA/ERAS/20TH/1950s.html WWW-VL: 1950s History] Category:1950s ko:1950년대 ja:1950年代 simple:1950s

1959

1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. It is also a song by The Sisters of Mercy on the album Floodland.

Events

January

- January 1 - Cultivars of plants named after this date must be named in a modern language, not in Latin.
- January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when forces of Fidel Castro advance.
- January 2 - CBS Radio cuts four soap operas: Backstage Wife, Our Gal Sunday, Road of Life, and This is Nora Drake.
- January 2 - Castro's troops approach Havana.
- January 3 - Island of Addu in the Maldives declares independence.
- January 3 - Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state.
- January 4 - In Cuba rebel troops lead by Che Guevara and Glenfuego enter Havana.
- January 4 - In Léopoldville 42 people are killed during clashes between the police and participants of a meeting of the Abako party.
- January 6 - Fidel Castro arrives in Havana.
- January 7 - The United States recognizes the new Cuban government of Fidel Castro.
- January 8 - Charles De Gaulle inaugurated as the first president of French Fifth Republic.
- January 13 - Cuban communists execute 71 supporters of Fulgencio Batista.
- January 22 - Knox Mine Disaster - water breaches River Slope mine in Port Griffith, Pennsylvania - 12 miners dead.

February

- February 1 - A referendum in Switzerland turns down female suffrage.
- February 3 - The chartered plane transporting musicians Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper goes down in an Iowa snowstorm, killing all four occupants on board. The tragedy is later termed "The Day the Music Died," popularized in Don McLean's song, "American Pie."
- February 6 - At Cape Canaveral, Florida, the first successful test firing of a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile is accomplished.
- February 15 - Mattel's Barbie doll goes on sale in the USA.
- February 16 - Fidel Castro becomes Premier of Cuba.
- February 16 - Blizzard causes a massive power outage in Newfoundland.
- February 17 - USA launches Vanguard II weather satellite.
- February 18 - Jesus Sosa Blanco, murderer of 108 people, executed in Cuba.
- February 18 - Women in Nepal vote for the first time.
- February 19 - The United Kingdom grants Cyprus its independence.
- February 22 - Lee Petty wins the first Daytona 500.
- February 26 - Author Walter Mene throws acid on Rubens painting in Munich.

March-May

- March 1 - USS Tuscaloosa, USS New Orleans, USS Tennessee and USS West Virginia struck from the Naval Vessel Register.
- March 1 – Archbishop Makarios returns to Cyprus from exile.
- March 8 - Last television appearance of The Marx Brothers, in The Incredible Jewel Robbery.
- March 9 - The Barbie doll debuts.
- March 17 - Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, flees Tibet and travels to India.
- March 18 - American President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs bill allowing for Hawaiian statehood.
- March 19 - Two other islands join Addu in the United Suvadida Republic (abolished September 1963).
- March 31 - Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida is dedicated and opens its gates.
- March 31 - Dalai Lama leaves Tibet.
- April 9 - NASA announces its selection of seven military pilots to become the first US astronauts (see Mercury Seven).
- April 25 - The St. Lawrence Seaway linking the North American Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean officially opens to shipping.

May-July

- May - First Ten Tors event held in Dartmoor.
- late May / early June - import tariffs lifted in the United Kingdom.
- May 24 - British Empire Day becomes Commonwealth Day.
- June 3 - Singapore becomes a self governing crown colony of Britain with Lee Kuan Yew as Prime Minister.
- June 5 - A new government of the State of Singapore is sworn in by Sir William Goode. Two former Ministers were re-elected to the Legislative Assembly.
- June 8 - The USS Barbero and United States Postal Service attempt the delivery of mail via Missile Mail.
- June 9 - The USS George Washington is launched as the first submarine to carry ballistic missiles.
- June 14 - A three-front revolutionary invasion by air and sea takes place in the Dominican Republic consisting of exiles aided by Fidel Castro whose purpose was to overthrow dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo. Within a few days all but four are captured and executed. Trujillo is killed less than two years later by men partly inspired by the deaths of the 1959 martyrs.
- June 23 - Sean Lemass becomes the third Taoiseach of Ireland.
- June 23 - Convicted Manhattan Project spy Klaus Fuchs is released after only nine years in prison and allowed to emigrate to Dresden, East Germany (where he resumed a scientific career).
- June 26 - Queen Elizabeth II and US Dwight Eisenhower open Saint Lawrence Seaway.
- July 2 - Royal wedding in Belgium: Prince Albert marries the Italian princess Paola Ruffo di Calabria.
- July 4 - With the admission of Alaska as the 49th U.S. state earlier in the year, the 49-star flag of the United States debuts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
- July 7 - 14:28 UT Venus occulted the star Regulus. The rare event which will next occur on October 1, 2044 was used for determining the diameter of Venus and the structure of Venus' atmosphere.
- July 15 - Steel industry strike in USA.
- July 24 - At the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow, US vice-president Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev have a "kitchen debate."

August-December

- August 4 - Martial law declared in Laos.
- August 7 - Explorer program: The United States launches Explorer 6 from the Atlantic Missile Range in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
- August 8 - Flood in Formosa leaves 2,000 dead.
- August 14 - Explorer VI sends the first picture of Earth from space
- August 15 - Cyprus gains independence.
- August 16 - Explorer VI sends back the first picture of Earth from space.
- August 21 - Hawaii is admitted as the 50th U.S. state.
- August 24 - Cyprus joins United Nations.
- September 13 - Luna 2 crashes onto the Moon as the first man-made object.
- September 14 - Luna II reaches Moon as the first man-made object.
- September 15 - Russian probe Luna 2 sends back first photos of the far side of Earth's Moon.
- September 25 - Ceylon's prime minister SWRD Bandaranaike assassinated.
- October 12 - At the national congress of APRA in Peru a group of leftist radicals are expelled from the party. They will later form APRA Rebelde.
- October 12 - Large scale diamond robbery in London.
- October 13 - USA launches Explorer VII.
- October 21 - Mau Mau leader Dedan Kimathi is arrested in Nyeri, Kenya.
- October 21 - In New York City, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum opens to the public. It was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
- October 31 - Riots in the Belgian Congo.
- October 31 - Lee Harvey Oswald announces in Moscow he won't ever return to US.
- November 1 - Ice Hockey: After being struck in the face with a hockey puck, Montreal Canadiens goaltender, Jacques Plante offered to return to play on the condition that he can wear his protective face mask. It was the first time such equipment was used in a regular NHL game.
- November 2 - Quiz show scandals: "Twenty-One" game show contestant Charles Van Doren admits to a Congressional committee that he had been given questions and answers in advance.
- November 15 - Four members of the Herbert Clutter Family murdered at their farm outside Holcomb, Kansas.
- November 19 - The Ford Motor Company announces the discontinuation of the unpopular Edsel automobile, which had been introduced to the American public on "E Day" only two years earlier -- September 4, 1957.
- November 28 - Anti-USA demonstrations in Panama.
- December 1 - Cold War: Antarctic Treaty signed - 12 countries, including the United States and the Soviet Union, sign a landmark treaty, which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on that continent (this was the first arms control agreement established during the Cold War).
- December 2 - Malpasset dam in southern France collapses and water flows over the town of Frejus - 412 dead.
- December 14 - Makarios selected first president of Cyprus.

Unknown date

- The neutrino is first experimentally detected, by Cowan and Reines.
- TAT-2 cable goes into operation.
- Workers World Party is founded by Sam Marcy.
- The first skull of Australopithecus is discovered by Louis Leakey and his wife Mary Leakey in the Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania.
- Serengeti becomes a nature preserve.
- "Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Hansberry opens on Broadway in New York.

Births

Unknown date

- Claudia Benton, American murder victim (d. 1998)
- Graham Docherty, Scottish rugby player and businessman

January-February

- January 1 - Azali Assoumani, Comorese president
- January 6 - Kathy Sledge, American singer
- January 9 - Rigoberta Menchú, Guatemalan writer, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- January 16 - Sade, Nigerian-born singer
- January 17 - Susanna Hoffs, American singer (The Bangles)
- January 24 - Nastassja Kinski, German actress
- January 27 - Keith Olbermann, American news correspondent and sportscaster
- February 4 - Lawrence Taylor, American football player
- February 14 - Renee Fleming, American soprano
- February 16 - John McEnroe, American tennis player
- February 22 - Kyle MacLachlan, American actor
- February 23 - Richard Dodds, British field hockey player
- February 26 - Rolando Blackman, Panamanian basketball player

March-April

- March 6 - Tom Arnold, American actor and comedian
- March 8 - Aidan Quinn, American actor
- March 10 -Mike Wallace, NASCAR race car driver
- March 9 Rodney A. Grant, American actor
- March 15 - Harold Baines, baseball player
- March 16 - Flavor Flav, American rapper
- March 16 - Jens Stoltenberg, Prime Minister of Norway
- March 17 - Danny Ainge, American basketball player, coach, and baseball player
- March 18 - Luc Besson, French film producer, writer, and director
- March 21 - Nobuo Uematsu, Japanese composer
- March 22 - Matthew Modine, American actor
- March 29 - Perry Farrell, American musician
- April 3 - David Hyde Pierce, American actor
- April 10 - Brian Setzer, American guitarist (Stray Cats)
- April 16 - Alison Ramsay, Scottish field hockey player
- April 21 - Robert Smith, British musician (The Cure)
- April 22 - Catherine Mary Stewart, Canadian actress
- April 22 - Ryan Stiles, American actor
- April 27 - Sheena Easton, Scottish Singer
- April 30 - Stephen Harper, Canadian politician

May-June

- May 3 - Uma Bharati, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh
- May 3 - Ben Elton, British comedian and writer
- May 5 - Steve Stevens, American guitarist
- May 14 - Patrick Bruel, French singer
- May 15 - Andrew Eldritch, British musician (The Sisters of Mercy)
- May 20 - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, American singer (d. 1997)
- May 20 - Bronson Pinchot, American actor
- May 22 - Steven Morrissey, British singer
- May 29 - Adrian Paul, British actor
- June 12 - John Linnell, American musician (They Might Be Giants)
- June 26 - Mark McKinney, Canadian actor and comedian
- June 27 - Clint Boon, British musician (Inspiral Carpets)
- June 30 - Vincent D'Onofrio, American actor

July-September

- July 3 - Julie Burchill, British journalist
- July 6 - Richard Dacoury, French basketball player
- July 7 - Ben Linder, American engineer (d. 1987)
- July 10 - Janet Julian, American actress
- July 11 - Richie Sambora, American musician
- July 11 - Suzanne Vega, American singer
- July 13 - Richard Leman, British field hockey player
- July 16 - Gary Anderson, American football player
- July 26 - Kevin Spacey, American actor
- July 29 - Sanjay Dutt, Indian actor
- July 29 - Ruud Janssen, Dutch artist
- August 1 - Joe Elliott, lead singer for band Def Leppard.
- August 2 - Apollonia Kotero, American actress and singer
- August 3 - Koichi Tanaka, Japanese scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
- August 10 - Rosanna Arquette, American actress
- August 14 - Magic Johnson, American basketball player
- August 18 - Dorothy Bush Koch, sister of George W Bush and daughter of George H W Bush and Barbara Pierce Bush
- August 21 - Jim McMahon, American football player
- August 29 - Timothy Perry Shriver, son of Eunice Kennedy Shriver and nephew of John F Kennedy and Robert F Kennedy and Edward M Kennedy
- August 29 - Stephen Wolfram, British scientist
- August 30 - Mark 'Jacko' Jackson, Australian footballer and actor
- September 4 - Kevin Harrington, Australian actor
- September 8 - Mary Kerry Kennedy, daughter of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel Kennedy.
- September 14 - Morten Harket, Norwegian singer (a-ha)
- September 21 - Dave Coulier, American actor
- September 22 - James Mark Roth, American author, teacher, missionary, blogger
- September 29 - Benjamin Sehene, Rwandan writer

October-December

- October 3 - Fred Couples, American golfer
- October 3 - Greg Proops, American comedian
- October 3 - Jack Wagner, American actor
- October 9 - Michael Pare, American actor
- October 15 - Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York
- October 21 - Ken Watanabe, Japanese actor
- October 23 - "Weird Al" Yankovic, American singer and parodist
- October 25 - Nancy Cartwright, American voice actress
- October 27 - Rick Carlisle, American basketball coach
- November 10 - Linda Cohn, American sports reporter
- November 14 - Paul McGann, British actor
- November 23 - Dominique Dunne, American actress (d. 1982)
- November 25 - Charles Kennedy, Scottish politician
- November 28 - Judd Nelson, American actor
- December 13 - Nadia Russ, Ukrainian-born artist
- December 14 - Dana Childs, American radio personality and basketball coach
- December 21 - Florence Griffith Joyner, American athelete (d. 1998)
- December 27 - Gerina Dunwich, American author
- December 31 - Val Kilmer, American actor

Deaths

- January 21 - Cecil B. DeMille, American film director (b. 1881)
- January 22 - Mike Hawthorn, English race car driver (b. 1929)
- February 3 - Killed in a private plane crash:
- The Big Bopper, American singer (b. 1930)
- Buddy Holly, American singer (b. 1936)
- Richie Valens, American singer (b. 1941)
- February 3 - Vincent Astor, American philanthropist (b. 1891)
- February 11 - Marshall Teague, American race car driver (b. 1922)
- February 14 - Baby Dodds, American jazz musician (b. 1898)
- February 15 - Owen Willans Richardson, British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1879)
- February 28 - Maxwell Anderson, American screenwriter (b. 1888)
- March 3 - Lou Costello, American actor and comedian (b. 1906)
- March 4 - Maxey Long, American athlete (b. 1878)
- March 26 - Raymond Chandler, American novelist (b. 1888)
- March 29 - Barthélemy Boganda, first President of the Central African Republic (b. 1910)
- April 9 - Frank Lloyd Wright, American architect (b. 1867)
- May 5 - Carlos Saavedra Lamas, Argentine politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1878)
- May 14 - Sidney Bechet, American musician (b. 1897)
- May 24 - John Foster Dulles, United States Secretary of State (b. 1888)
- June 9 - Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1876)
- June 23 - Boris Vian, French writer, poet, singer, and musician
- July 11 - Charlie Parker, English cricketer (b. 1882)
- July 15 - Ernest Bloch, Swiss composer (b. 1880)
- July 15 - Billie Holiday, American singer (b. 1915)
- August 5 - Edgar Guest, English poet (b. 1881)
- August 6 - Preston Sturges, American film director and writer (b. 1898)
- August 15 - Blind Willie McTell, American singer (b. 1901)
- August 16 - Wanda Landowska, Polish harpsichordist (b. 1879)
- August 19 - Jacob Epstein, American-born sculptor (b. 1880)
- August 28 - Bohuslav Martinů, Czech composer (b. 1890)
- October 7 - Mario Lanza, American tenor (b. 1921)
- October 14 - Errol Flynn, American actor (b. 1909)
- October 16 - George C. Marshall, United States Secretary of State, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b.1880)
- October 18 - Boughera El Ouafi, Algerian athlete (b. 1898)
- November 15 - Charles Thomson Rees Wilson, Scottish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1869)
- November 17 - Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazilian composer (b. 1887)
- November 17 - Nichijun Horigome, Japanese priest (b. 1898)

Nobel Prizes

- Physics - Emilio Gino Segrè, Owen Chamberlain
- Chemistry - Jaroslav Heyrovský
- Medicine - Severo Ochoa, Arthur Kornberg
- Literature - Salvatore Quasimodo
- Peace - Philip John Noel-Baker
- ko:1959년 ja:1959年 simple:1959 th:พ.ศ. 2502

ICBM

An intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, is a very-long-range (greater than 5500 km) ballistic missile typically designed for nuclear weapons delivery, i.e., delivering one or more nuclear warheads. It uses a ballistic trajectory involving a significant ascent and descent, including sub-orbital flight. ICBMs are differentiated by maximum range from other ballistic missiles: intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs), short-range ballistic missiles, and the newly named theater ballistic missiles. One particular weapon developed by the Soviet Union (FOBS) had a partial orbital trajectory, and unlike most ICBMs its target could not be deduced from its orbital flight path. It was decommissioned in compliance with arms control agreements, which address the maximum range of ICBMs and prohibit orbital or fractional-orbital weapons. The following nations currently have operational ICBM systems: Russia, the United States, France [http://www.nrdc.org/nuclear/nudb/datab16.asp], the UK, and China. India has IRBMs but is developing ICBMs, see ballistic missiles of India. (Pakistan's ballistic missiles are IRBMs.) In 2002, the United States and Russia agreed in the SORT treaty to reduce their deployed stockpiles to not more than 2,200 warheads each.

Flight phases

The following flight phases can be distinguished:
- boost phase - 3 to 4 minutes (for a solid rocket shorter than for a liquid-propellant rocket); altitude at the end of this phase is 150 -200 km, typical burn-out speed is 7 km/s
- midcourse phase - ca. 25 minutes - suborbital flight in an elliptic orbit, i.e. the orbit is part of an ellipse with vertical major axis; the apogee (halfway the midcourse phase) is at an altitude of typically ca. 1200 km; the semi-major axis is between one half of the radius of the Earth and the radius; the projection of the orbit on the Earth's surface is a great circle - the missile may release several independent warheads, a large number of decoys, and chaff
- reentry phase (starting at an altitude of 100 km) - 2 minutes See also Missile Defense Agency.

History

The progenitor of the ICBM was the German A9/10, which was never developed but only proposed by Wernher von Braun. The progenitor of the IRBM was the German V2 (Vergeltung, or "vengeance") rocket designed by von Braun that used liquid propellant and an inertial guidance system. It was launched from a mobile launcher in order to make it less susceptible to Allied air attacks. Following World War 2 von Braun and his lead scientist went to work directly for the US Army through Operation Paperclip developing the V2 into the Redstone IRBM and Jupiter IRBM. Due to treaty agreements the US was able to base these IRBMs in countries close to the USSR within strategic range. The USSR had no similar territory in the 1950s so under the direction of Sergei Korolev a crash programme to develop an ICBM began which at one stage consumed 5% of the entire Soviet military budget. Korolev was given access to captured V2 materials but evolved a distinct design, the R-7, that was declared 'operational' in 1957. Competition between the US armed services meant that each force developed its own ICBM programme slowing progress. The US's first ICBM was the Atlas operational in 1959. Both the R7 and Atlas required a large launch facility making them vulnerable to attack and could not be kept in a ready state. Early ICBMs formed the basis of many space launch systems. Examples include: Atlas, Redstone rocket, Titan, R-7, and Proton, derived from the earlier ICBMS, but never deployed as an ICBM. The UK built its own ICBM Black Knight but it was never made operational due to the difficulty of finding a launch site away from population centres. Under the direction of Robert McNamara the US initiated the LGM-30 Minuteman, Polaris and Skybolt solid fuel ICBMs. Modern ICBMs tend to be smaller than their ancestors (due to increased accuracy and smaller and lighter warheads) and use solid fuels, making them less useful as orbital launch vehicles. Deployment of these systems was governed by the strategic theory of Mutually Assured Destruction. In the 1970s development began of Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems by both the US and USSR but these were restricted by treaty in order to preserve the value of the existing ICBM systems. President Ronald Reagan launched the Strategic Defense Initiative as well as the MX and Midgetman ICBM programmes. This led to the agreement of a series of Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty negotiations. Countries in the early stages of developing ICBMs have all used liquid propellants for simplicity's sake.

Modern ICBMs

Modern ICBMs typically carry multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs), each of which carries a separate nuclear warhead, allowing a single missile to hit multiple targets. MIRV was an outgrowth of the rapidly shrinking size and weight of modern warheads and the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaties which imposed limitations on the number of launch vehicles(SALT I and SALT II). It has also proved to be an "easy answer" to proposed deployments of ABM systems – it is far less expensive to add more warheads to an existing missile system than to build an ABM system capable of shooting down the additional warheads; hence, most ABM system proposals have been judged to be impractical. The only operational ABM systems were deployed in the 1970s, the US Safeguard ABM facility was located in North Dakota and was operational from 1975-1976. The USSR deployed its Galosh ABM system around Moscow in the 1970s, which remains in service. ICBMs are based:
- in missile silos, which offer some protection from military attack (including, the designers hope, some protection from a nuclear first strike)
- on submarines: submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs); most or all SLBMs have the long range of ICBMs (as opposed to IRBMs)
- on heavy trucks; this applies to one version of the RT-2UTTH Topol M which may be deployed from a self-propelled mobile launcher, capable of moving through roadless terrain, and launching a missile from any point along its route
- mobile launchers on rails; this applies, for example, to РТ-23УТТХ "Молодец" (RT-23UTTH "Molodets" -- SS-24 "Sсаlреl") The last three kinds are mobile and therefore hard to find. During storage, one of the most important features of the missile is its serviceability. One of the key features of the first computer-controlled ICBM, the Minuteman missile was that it could quickly and easily use its computer to test itself. In flight, a booster pushes the warhead, and then falls away. Most modern boosters are solid-fueled rocket motors, which can be stored easily for long periods of time. Early missiles used liquid-fueled rocket motors. Liquid-fueled ICBMs were generally not kept fueled all the time, and therefore fueling the rocket was necessary before a launch. This annoying procedure was a source of significant operational delay, and therefore might cause the rockets to be destroyed before they could be used. It also provided opponents with intelligence because it was a definite observable event that indicated the start of an attack. Once the booster falls away, the warhead falls on an unpowered path, much like an orbit, except that it hits the earth at some point. Moving in this way is stealthy. No rocket gases or other emissions occur to indicate the missile's position to defenders. Also, it is the fastest way to get from one part of the Earth to another. This increases the element of surprise. The high speeds of a ballistic warhead (near 5 miles per second) also make it difficult to intercept. Many authorities say that missiles also release aluminized balloons, electronic noisemakers, and other items intended to confuse interception devices and radars. The high speed can cause the missile to get very hot as it reenters the atmosphere. Ballistic warheads are protected by heatshields constructed of materials such as pyrolytic graphite, and in early missiles, thick plywood. Plywood approaches the strength per weight of carbon fiber/epoxy composites, and chars slowly, protecting the missile. Accuracy is crucial, because doubling the accuracy decreases the needed warhead energy by a factor of four. Accuracy is limited by the accuracy of the navigation system, and the available geophysical information. Many authorities believe that most government-supported geophysical mapping initiatives, such as GPS, and ocean satellite altitude systems such as Seasat, probably have a covert purpose to map mass concentrations and determine local gravitic anomalies, in order to improve accuracies of ballistic missiles. Strategic missile systems are thought to use custom integrated circuits designed to calculate navigational differential equations thousands to millions of times per second in order to reduce navigational errors caused by calculation alone. These circuits are usually a network of binary addition circuits that continually recalculate the missile's position. The inputs to the navigation circuit are set by a general purpose computer according to a navigational input schedule loaded into the missile before launch. The low flying, guided cruise missile is an alternative to ballistic missiles.

Specific missiles

Land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and cruise missiles

The US Air Force currently operates just over 500 ICBMs at around 15 missile complexes located primarily in the northern Rocky Mountain states and the Dakotas. These are of the LGM-30 Minuteman III and Peacekeeper ICBM variants. Peacekeeper missiles are being phased out by 2005. All USAF Minuteman II missiles have been destroyed in accordance to START, and their launch silos sealed or sold to the public. To comply with the START II most US multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles, or MIRVs, have been eliminated and replaced with single warhead missiles. However, since the abandonment of the START II treaty, the U.S. is said to be considering retaining 800 warheads on 500 missiles.[http://www.thebulletin.org/issues/nukenotes/mj04nukenote.html] The United States Air Force awards two badges for performing duty in a nuclear missile silo. The Missile Badge is presented to commissioned officers while the Space and Missile Pin is awarded to silo ground and support personnel.

Sea-based ICBMs

- The US Navy currently has 14 Ohio-class SSBNs deployed. Each submarine is equipped with a complement of 24 Trident missiles, eight with Trident I missiles, and ten with Trident II missiles.
- The French Navy constantly maintains at least four active units, relying on two classes of nuclear-powered ballistic submarines (SSBN): the older Redoutable class, which are being progressively decommissioned, and the newer Triomphant class. These carry 16 M45 missiles with TN75 warheads, and are scheduled to be upgraded to M51 nuclear missile around 2010.
- The UK's Royal Navy has four Vanguard class submarines, each armed with 16 Trident II SLBMs.
- China's People's Liberation Army Navy has one Xia class submarine with 12 single-warhead JL-1 SLBMs. The PLAN is also developing the new Type 094 SSBN that will have up to 16 JL-2 SLBMs (possibly MIRV), which are also in development.

Current and former US ballistic missiles

- Atlas (SM-65, CGM-16) former ICBM launched from silo, now the rocket is used for other purposes
- Titan I (SM-68, HGM-25A)
- Titan II (SM-68B, LGM-25C) - former ICBM launched from silo, now the rocket is used for other purposes
- Minuteman I (SM-80, LGM-30A/B, HSM-80)
- Minuteman II (LGM-30F)
- Minuteman III (LGM-30G) - launched from silo - as of June 28, 2004, there are 517 Minuteman III missiles in active inventory
- LG-118A Peacekeeper / MX (LG-118A, MX) - silo-based; 29 missiles were on alert at the beginning of 2004; all are to be removed from service by 2005.
- Midgetman - has never been operational - launched from mobile launcher
- Polaris A1, A2, A3 - (UGM-27/A/B/C) former SLBM
- Poseidon C3 - (UGM-73) former SLBM
- Trident - (UGM-93A/B) SLBM - Trident II (D5) was first deployed in 1990 and is planned to be deployed past 2020.

Soviet/Russian

Specific types of Soviet/Russian ICBMs include:
- SS-6 SAPWOOD / R-7 / 8K71
- SS-7 SADDLER / R-16
- SS-8 SASIN / R9
- SS-9 SCARP
- SS-11 SEGO
- SS-17 SPANKER
- SS-18 SATAN / R-36M2 / Voivode
- SS-19 STILLETO
- SS-24 SCALPEL / RT-23
- SS-25 SICKLE / Topol
- SS-27 / Topol-M

People's Republic of China

Specific types of Chinese ICBMs called Dong Feng ("East Wind").
- DF-3 - cancelled. Program name transferred to a MRBM.
- DF-4 (CSS-3) - silo, 7,000km range
- DF-5 CSS-4 - silo, 12,000km range (replaced now with DF-5A 13,000km)
- DF-6 - cancelled
- DF-22 - cancelled by 1995.
- DF-31 CSS-9 - silo and road mobile, 8,000km range (DF-31A 10,000km)
- DF-41 CSS-X-10 - in development.

Ballistic missile submarines

Specific types of ballistic missile submarines include:
- George Washington class
- Ethan Allen class
- Lafayette class
- Benjamin Franklin class
- Ohio class
- Resolution class
- Vanguard class
- Typhoon class
- Delta IV class
- Redoutable class
- Triomphant class
- Xia class
- Additional Soviet/Russian ballistic missile submarines

External links

- [http://es.rice.edu/projects/Poli378/Nuclear/f04.stratg_invent.html Estimated Strategic Nuclear Weapons Inventories (September 2004)]
- [http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/icbm/index.html Intercontinental Ballistic and Cruise Missiles] Category:Intercontinental ballistic missiles ms:Peluru berpandu balistik jarak benua ja:大陸間弾道ミサイル

LOX

Liquid oxygen (also LOx, LOX or Lox in the aerospace industry) is the liquid form of oxygen. It has a pale blue colour and is strongly paramagnetic. Liquid oxygen has a density of 1140 kg/m³ and is moderately cryogenic (freezing point: −219 °C, boiling point: −183 °C). Oxygen is found naturally in the air. For industrial applications it is obtained from air by fractional distillation. Liquid oxygen is a powerful oxidising agent: organic materials will burn rapidly and energetically in liquid oxygen, hence LOx is a common liquid oxidizer propellant for spacecraft rocket applications usually in combination with liquid hydrogen or kerosene. It was used in the very first rocket applications like the V2 missile and Redstone, R-7 or Atlas boosters. LOX is useful in this role because it creates a high specific impulse. LOx was also used in some early ICBMs although more modern ICBMs do not use LOX because its cryogenic properties and need for regular replenishment to replace boiloff make it harder to maintain and launch quickly. LOX also had extensive use in making oxyliquit explosives. Liquid nitrogen has a significantly lower boiling point (77 K) than oxygen (90 K), and vessels containing liquid nitrogen can condense oxygen from air: when most of the nitrogen has evaporated from such a vessel there is a risk that liquid oxygen remaining can react violently with organic material. Conversely, liquid air can be oxygen-enriched by letting it stand in open air; atmospheric oxygen dissolves in it, while nitrogen evaporates preferentially.

External link

- LOx enhanced combustion: [http://www.showmenews.com/2005/Jul/20050703Comm006.asp Lighting a barbeque with liquid oxygen] Do not try this yourself ms:Oksigen cair ja:液体酸素 Category:Rocket fuels

RP-1

RP-1 (refined petroleum) is a highly refined form of kerosene similar to jet fuel, used in the United States as a rocket fuel. RP-1 is typically burned with LOX (liquid oxygen) as the oxidizer. Although considerably less powerful than liquid hydrogen per mass, RP-1 is cheaper, can be stored at room temperature, is far less of an explosive hazard and is far more dense (a given volume of RP-1 is significantly more powerful than a similar volume of LH2) and more practical for many uses. RP-1 is a fuel in the first-stage boosters of the Delta and Atlas rockets. It also powered the first stages of the Titan I, Saturn IB and Saturn V. RP-1 is a refined fraction of kerosene, which is subjected to further treatment to remove unsaturated substances which polymerise when the fuel is stored, as well as sulphur-containing hydrocarbons which reduce the efficiency of combustion. Furthermore, in order to meet specific requirements of density, heat of combustion, and aromatic content, the kerosene must be obtained from crudes with a high naphthalene content. Russian rocket-grade kerosene is of very similar standard as RP-1 and is designated T-1 and RG-1. Russian rocket grade kerosene is formulated for higher densities though (0.82 to 0.85 g/ml) compared to American RP-1 at 0.81 g/ml, and the Russians achieved even higher densities by super-chilling the kerosene in a rocket’s fuel tanks, but this partially defeats the purpose of using kerosene over other fuels.

External link

- [http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/nasafact/count2.htm NASA page on propellants]
- [http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/mwade/props/loxosene.htm Lox/Kerosene propellant] Category:Rocket fuels

Rocket

A rocket is a vehicle, missile or aircraft which obtains thrust by the reaction to the ejection of fast moving exhaust gas from within a rocket engine. Often the term rocket is also used to mean a rocket engine. In military terminology, a rocket generally uses solid propellant and is unguided. These rockets can be fired by ground-attack aircraft at fixed targets such as buildings, or can be launched by ground forces at other ground targets. During the Vietnam era, there were also air launched unguided rockets that carried a nuclear payload designed to attack aircraft formations in flight. A missile, by contrast, can use either solid or liquid propellant, and has a guidance system. This distinction generally applies only in the case of weapons, though, and not to civilian or orbital launch vehicles. In all rockets the exhaust is formed from propellant which is carried within the rocket prior to its release. Rocket thrust is due to accelerating the exhaust gases (see Newton's 3rd Law of Motion). There are many different types of rockets, and a comprehensive list can be found in spacecraft propulsion- they range in size from tiny models that can be purchased at a hobby store, to the enormous Saturn V used for the Apollo program. Rockets are used to accelerate, change orbits, de-orbit for landing, for the whole landing if there is no atmosphere (e.g. for landing on the Moon), and sometimes to soften a parachute landing immediately before touchdown (see Soyuz spacecraft). Most current rockets are chemically

Atlas ICBM

History

Mercury-Atlas Three (Orbit Flight Events- April 25, 1961)

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Current Atlas Family

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LOX

See also

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Rocket