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Jupiter (rocket)

Jupiter (rocket)

The Jupiter Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile, first tested in 1957, was the United States' second Intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM). Given the designation PGM-19, it was a liquid-fueled (LOX and RP-1) rocket, with one engine producing 66 kN of thrust. The U.S. Air Force Thor was Americas' first IRBM. In September 1955, Dr. Wernher von Braun, briefing the Secretary of Defense on long range missiles pointed out that a 1,500 mi (2,400 km) missile was a logical extension of the Redstone. In December 1955, the U.S. Secretaries of the Army and Navy announced a dual Army and Navy program to create a land and sea based IRBM. Because of naval basing, the Jupiter IRBM was designed as a short squat missile to ease handling aboard ships. The Navy withdrew from the project in November 1956 in favor of the solid fuel Polaris missile. Despite the withdrawal of the Navy from the project, the Jupiter IRBM retained its short squat dimensions. As a result, the Jupiter was too wide to be carried aboard contemporary cargo aircraft. Later in November 1956, the Department of Defense assigned all land based long range missiles to the U. S. Air Force. The U. S. Army retained battlefield missiles with a range of 200 miles (320 km) or less. The Jupiter IRBM program was transferred to the U. S. Air Force. The Air Force already had its own IRBM, the Thor. The Air Force always looked on the Jupiter IRBM as "not invented here". There is some name confusion with another U.S. Army rocket was called the Jupiter-C. The Jupiter-C is a modified Redstone missile. Redstone missiles were modified by lengthing the fuel tanks and placing small solid fueled upper stages on them. These Jupiter-C rockets were used to perform reentry nose cone test flights and to launch the Americas' early Explorer 1 and Explorer 3 satellites. Jupiter-C rockets were also called Juno or Juno I rockets. See diagram at lower right showing a Redstone, Jupiter-C, Mercury-Redstone and Jupiter IRBM missile. The Saturn I and Saturn IB rockets were manufactured by using a single Jupiter IRBM rocket propellant tank, in combination with eight Redstone rocket propellant tanks clustered around it, to form a powerful first stage launch vehicle. The Jupiter IRBM was also modified by adding upper stages, in the form of clustered Sergent rockets, to create a satellite/space probe launch vehicle. This modified Jupiter IRBM was called the Juno-II.

Biological Flights

__NOTOC__ Redstone Jupiter IRBM missiles were used in a series of suborbital biological test fights. On December 13, 1958, Jupiter IRBM AM-13 was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida with a U.S. Navy trained South American squirrel monkey named "Gordo" onboard. The nose cone recovery parachute failed to operate and "Gordo" did not survive the flight. Telemetry data sent back during the flight showed that the monkey survived the 10 g (10 m/s²) of launch, 8 minutes of weightlessness and 40 g (390 m/s²) of reentry at 10,000 mph (4.5 km/s). The nose cone sank 1,302 nautical miles (2,411 km) downrange from Cape Canaveral and was not recovered. Another biological flight was launched on May 28, 1959. Aboard Jupiter IRBM AM-18, were a 7 pound (3.2 kg) American born rhesus monkey, "Able" and an 11 ounce (310 g) South American squirrel monkey, "Baker". The monkeys rode in the nose cone of the missile to an altitude of 360 miles (579 km) and a distance of 1,700 miles (2,700 km) down the Atlantic Missile Range from Cape Canaveral, Florida. They withstood accelerations 38 times the normal pull of gravity and were weightless for about 9 minutes. A top speed of 10,000 mph (4.5 km/s) was reached during their 16 minute flight. After Splashdown the Jupiter nosecone carrying Able and Baker was recovered by the sea going tug, USS Kiowa ATF-72. The monkeys survived the flight in good condition. "Able" died four days after the flight, from a reaction to the anesthesia, while undergoing surgery to remove an infected medical electrode. "Baker" died on November 29, 1984 at the Alabama Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Gordo, Able and Baker were just three of many monkeys sent into space.

Military Deployment

monkeys sent into space In April, 1958, the U.S. Department of Defense notified the U.S. Air Force it had tentatively planned to deploy the first three Jupiter squadrons (45 missiles) in France. Negotiations between France and the U.S. fell through in June, 1958. Charles De Gaulle, the new French President, refused to accept the basing of any Jupiter IRBM missiles in France. This prompted United States to explore the possibility of deploying the missiles in Italy and Turkey. The U. S. Air Force was already implementing plans to base four squadrons (60 missiles) of Thor IRBM's in Britain around Nottingham. In April 1959, The Secretary of the Air Force issued implementing instructions to U. S. Air Force to deploy two Jupiter IRBM squadrons to Italy. The two squadrons totaling 30 missiles were deployed at 10 sites in Italy from 1961 to 1963. They were operated by Italian Air Force crews, but U.S. Air Force personnel controlled arming of the nuclear warheads. These missiles were deployed around the Italian countryside and operated by the 36^Aerobrigata Interdizione Strategica (36th Strategic Interdiction Air Squadron, Italian Air Force), stationed out of the Gioia Del Colle Air Base, Italy. In 1962, a Bulgarian MiG-17 reconnaissance airplane is reported to have crashed into an olive grove near one of the US Jupiter missile launch sites in Italy, after overflying the site. October 1959, the location of the third and final Jupiter IRBM squadron was settled when the Government to Government agreement was signed with Turkey. United States and Turkey concluded an agreement to deploy one Jupiter squadron on NATO's southern flank. One squadron totaling 15 missiles was deployed at 5 sites near Izmir, Turkey from 1961 to 1963. They were operated by U.S. Air Force personnel. The first flight of three Jupiter missiles were turned over to the Türk Hava Kuvvetleri (Turkish Air Force) in late October 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis. U.S. Air Force personnel controlled arming of the nuclear warheads. The actual deployment locations of the Jupiter IRBM missiles within Turkey are still secret more than 40 years later. According to some that took part in the Turkish missile deployment in 1961, one of the five sites was in the mountains near Manisa, and another site was in the mountains near Akhisar. The central deployment base was Cigli Air Force Base. On four occasions between mid-October 1961 and August 1962, Jupiter IRBM mobile missiles carrying 1.4 megaton of TNT (5.9 PJ) nuclear warheads were struck by lightning at their bases in Italy. In each case, thermal batteries were activated, and on two occasions, tritium-deuterium "boost" gas was injected into the warhead pits, partially arming them. After the fourth lightning strike on a Jupiter IRBM, the U.S. Air Force placed protective lightning strike-diversion tower arrays at all of the Italian and Turkish Jupiter IRBM missiles sites. By the time that the Turkish Jupiters had been installed, the missiles were already largely obsolete and increasingly vulnerable to Soviet attacks. President John F. Kennedy ordered the removal of all Jupiter IRBMs upon taking office in 1961. The Air Force, however, delayed removal and the President was infuriated to learn that they had not yet been removed more than a year later. All Jupiter IRBM's were removed from service by April 1963.

Jupiter IRBM Specifications

Cigli Air Force Base
- Length: 60 ft (18.3 m)
- Diameter: 8 ft 9 in (2.67 m)
- Total Fueled Weight: 108,804 lb (49,353 kg)
- Empty Weight: 13,715 lb (6,221 kg)
- Oxygen (LOX) Weight: 68,760 lb (31,189 kg)
- RP-1 (kerosene) Weight: 30,415 lb (13,796 kg)
- Thrust: 150,000 lbf (667 kN)
- Engine: Rocketdyne LR70-NA (Model S-3D)
- ISP: 247.5 lbf·s/lb (2.43 kN·s/kg)
- Burning time: 157.8 s
- Propellant consumption rate: 627.7 lb/s (284.7 kg/s)
- Range: 1,500 mi (2,410 km)
- Flight time: 1,016.9 s
- Cutoff velocity: 8,984 mph (14,458 km/h) - Mach 13.04
- Reenty velocity: 10,645 mph (17,131 km/h) - Mach 15.45
- Acceleration: 13.69 g (134 m/s²)
- Peak deceleration: 44.0 g (431 m/s²)
- Peak altitude: 390 mi (628 km)
- CEP 4,925 ft (1,500 m)
- Warhead: 1.45 Mt Thermonuclear W-49 - 1,650 lb (750 kg)
- Fusing: Proximity and Impact
- Guidance: Inertial

Juno II Launch Vehicle Specifications

Cigli Air Force Base The Juno II was a satellite launch vehicle derived from the Jupiter IRBM. It was used for 10 satellite launches. Six of those launches failed. Juno II was a 4-stage rocket. Launched Pioneer 3, Pioneer 4, Explorer 7, Explorer 8, Explorer 11.
- Juno II Total length: 24.0 m
- Orbit payload to 200 km: 41 kg
- Escape velocity payload: 6 kg
- First launch date: December 6, 1958
- Last launch date: May 24, 1961


Jupiter IRBM and Juno II Launches


All test launches were from Cape Canaveral, Florida. There were 46 test launches. More to be listed later.

External links


- [http://www.redstone.army.mil/history/systems/jupiter/chapter1.html U.S. Army - Redstone Arsenal - Jupiter IRBM History]
- [http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/jupiter.htm/ Encyclopedia Astronautica - Jupiter IRBM]
- [http://www.geocities.com/jupiter_irbm/ Jupiter IRBM History Website]

Related content

Related development: Comparable missiles: Thor IRBM Designation sequence: CGM-16/HGM-16 - PGM-17 - MGM-18 - PGM-19 - ADM-20 - MGM-21 - AGM-22 Designation sequence: SM-75 - TM-76 - GAM-77 - SM-78 Related lists: List of missiles Category:Intermediate-range ballistic missiles ja:ジュピター (ミサイル)

1957

1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar.

Events

January-February


- January 1 - Saarland joins West Germany
- January 2 - San Francisco and Los Angeles stock exchanges merge to form Pacific Coast Stock Exchange.
- January 3 - Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch
- January 4 - After 69 years the last issue of Collier's Weekly magazine is published
- January 5 - Russell Endean becomes the first batsman to be dismissed handled the ball in test match cricket
- January 10 - Anthony Eden resigns - Harold Macmillan becomes the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- January 11 - The African Convention is founded in Dakar.
- January 13 - Wham-O Company produces the first Frisbee
- January 16 - The Cavern Club opens in Liverpool
- January 22 - Israel withdraws from the Sinai Peninsula (they captured it from Egypt in a battle on October 29, 1956)
- January 22 - The New York City "Mad Bomber," George P. Metesky, is arrested in Waterbury, Connecticut and is charged with planting more than 30 bombs.
- January 23 - Ku Klux Klan members force truck driver Willie Edwards to jump off a bridge into the Alabama River - he drowns as a result.
- February 4 - France prohibits UN involvement in Algeria
- February 15 - Andrei Gromyko becomes foreign minister of Soviet Union

March

Soviet Union
- March 1 - U Nu becomes Prime Minister of Burma
- March 1 - Arturo Lezama becomes President of the National Council of Government of Uruguay
- March 1 - Sud Aviation forms from a merger between SNCASE (Société Nationale de Constructions Aéronautiques du Sud Est) and SNCASO (Société Nationale de Constructions Aéronautiques du Sud Ouest)
- March 6 - United Kingdom colonies Gold Coast and British Togoland become the independent Republic of Ghana
- March 8 - Egypt re-opens the Suez Canal
- March 10 - Floodgates of The Dalles Dam are closed inundating Celilo Falls and ancient indian fisheries along the Columbia River in Oregon.
- March 13 - The FBI arrests Jimmy Hoffa and charges him with bribery
- March 14 - President Sukarno declares martial law in Indonesia
- March 20 - French newspaper L'Express reveals that the French army tortures Algerian prisoners
- March 25 - Treaty of Rome (patto di Roma) establishes the European Economic Community (EEC); see EU

April-June


- April 1 - The first new conscripts join the Bundeswehr
- April 5 - First elected government of Kerala. CPI won the elections and E. M. S. Namboodiripad became the first chief minister of united Kerala
- April 9 - Egypt reopens Suez Canal for all shipping
- April 12 - United Kingdom announces that Singapore will gain self rule January 1 1958
- April 12 - Allen Ginsberg's poem Howl, printed in England, is seized by U.S. customs officials on the grounds of obscenity
- May 2 - Vincent Gigante fails to assassinate mafioso Frank Costello
- May 2 - Senator Joseph McCarthy of the Red Scare dies.
- May 3 - Walter O'Malley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, agrees to move the team from Brooklyn, New York, to Los Angeles, California.
- May 15 - Stanley Matthews plays his final international game, ending an English record international career of almost 23 years
- May 16 - Paul-Henri Spaak becomes the new Secretary General of NATO.
- June 9 - First ascent of Broad Peak
- June 15 - Eindhoven University of Technology is founded.
- June 21 - John Diefenbaker becomes Canada's thirteenth prime minister.
- June 25 - United Church of Christ formed in Cleveland, Ohio by merger of Congregational Christian Churches and the Evangelical and Reformed Church.
- June 27 - Hurricane Audrey demolishes Cameron, Louisiana, killing 400 people.

July-September


- July - International Geophysical Year begins.
- July 16 - United States Marine Major John Glenn flies an F8U supersonic jet from California to New York in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 8 seconds setting a new transcontinental speed record.
- July 25 - Tunisia becomes a republic.
- July 29 - The International Atomic Energy Agency is established.
- August 4 - Juan Manuel Fangio, driving for Maserati, wins the Formula One German Grand Prix, clinching (with 4 wins that season) his record fifth world drivers championship, including his fourth consecutive championship (also a record); these two records would endure for nearly half a century.
- August 31 - The Federation of Malaya, which does not include Singapore, gains independence from the United Kingdom. Tuanku Abdul Rahman ibni Almarhum Tuanku Muhammad, Yang di-Pertuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan becomes the first Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
- September 4 - American Civil Rights Movement: Little Rock Crisis - Orville Faubus, governor of Arkansas, calls out the US National Guard to prevent black students from enrolling in Central High School in Little Rock.
- September 4 - The Ford Motor Company introduces the Edsel on what the company proclaims as "E Day."
- September 21 - Olav V becomes King of Norway on the death of Haakon VII.

October


- October 4 - Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite to orbit the earth.
- October 9 - Neil H. McElroy was sworn in as the 6th Secretary of Defense of United States.
- October 10 - US President Dwight D. Eisenhower apologizes to the finance minister of Ghana, Komla Agbeli Gbdemah, after he was refused service in a Dover, Delaware restaurant.
- October 11 - Radio telescope of Jodrell Bank, Cheshire, UK, opened.
- October 23 - Morocco begins its invasion of Ifni.
- October 25 - Assassination of a Mafia boss Albert Anastasia in a barber shop in Park Sheraton Hotel.
- October 27 - Celal Bayar re-elected president of Turkey

November-December


- November 1 - Michigan's Mackinac Bridge opened.
- November 3 - Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2. On board is the first animal to enter space - a dog named Laika (she was kept alive for several days in space with a sophisticated life-support system).
- November 7 - Cold War: In the United States, the Gaither Report calls for more American missiles and fallout shelters.
- November 13 - Flooding in the Po River valley of Italy leads to the flooding also in Venice
- November 14 - Apalachin Meeting - The leaders of the American Mafia meet at a convention in Apalachin, New York at the house of Joseph Barbara. It is broken up by a curious patrolman.
- November 15 - Plane crash in the Isle of Wight leaves 43 dead.
- November 16 - Serial killer Edward Gein murders his last victim, Bernice Worden of Plainfield, Wisconsin.
- November 30 - Grenade attack against Indonesian president Sukarno in Cikini School in Jakarta. Six children killed, Sukarno survives unscathed.
- December 1 - In Indonesia, Sukarno announces nationalization of 246 Dutch businesses
- December 4 - Lewisham train disaster in UK leaves 92 dead
- December 5 - All 326,000 Dutch nationals are expelled from Indonesia.
- December 6 - First US attempt to launch a satellite fails, the satellite blowing up on the launch pad.

Undated


- Consumers' Association founded (UK)
- Project Orion begins, a U.S. program to build a spacecraft powered by nuclear explosions.
- Civil Rights Commission established under the Civil Rights Act of 1957
- IBM makes FORTRAN scientific programming language available to customers. It becomes the most widely used computer language for technical work.
- Citroën stops production of its Traction Avant motor car (production started in 1934).
- The Piña Colada was invented by Ramon Marrero, a bartender at Puerto Rico's Caribe Hilton. [http://melindalee.com/recipearchive.html?action=124&item_id=698]

Environmental change


- The Africanized bee is accidentally released in Brazil
- The Asian Flu pandemic begins in China

Births

January-February


- January 6 - Nancy Lopez, American golfer
- January 7 - Nicholson Baker, American novelist
- January 7 - Katie Couric, American television host
- January 7 - Julian Solis, Puerto Rican boxer
- January 11 - Robert Earl Keen, American musician and singer
- January 15 - Mario Van Peebles, Mexican actor and director
- January 19 - Katey Sagal, American actress, singer, and writer
- January 22 - Mike Bossy, Canadian hockey player
- January 23 - Princess Caroline of Monaco
- January 30 - Payne Stewart, American golfer (d. 1999)
- February 4 - Don Davis, American composer
- February 6 - Kathy Najimy, American actress and comedian
- February 6 - Robert Townsend, American comedian, actor, director, and producer
- February 8 - Cindy Wilson, American singer (The B-52's)
- February 9 - John Axon GC, British railwayman
- February 16 - LeVar Burton, American actor
- February 16 - James Ingram, American singer
- February 18 - Vanna White, American game show presenter
- February 19 - Falco, Austrian musician (d. 1998)
- February 27 - Viktor Markin, Russian athlete
- February 28 - Ian Smith, New Zealand cricket captains

March-May


- March 5 - Ray Suarez, American journalist
- March 10 - Osama bin Laden, Saudi-born Islamic extremist
- March 12 - Steve Harris, British bassist (Iron Maiden)
- March 20 - Spike Lee, American film director and actor
- March 29 - Christophe Lambert, American-born actor
- March 30 - Paul Reiser, American actor
- March 31 - Marc McClure, American actor
- April 4 - Aki Kaurismäki, Finnish film director
- April 4 - Nobuyoshi Kuwano, Japanese television performer and musician (Rats & Star)
- April 5 - Ivan Corea, Sri Lankan autism campaigner
- April 8 - Henry Cluney, Irish musician
- April 9 - Seve Ballesteros, Spanish golfer
- April 29 - Daniel Day-Lewis, Anglo-Irish actor
- May 3 - William Clay Ford, Jr., American automobile executive
- May 10 - Sid Vicious, English bassist (Sex Pistols) (d. 1979)
- May 22 - Gary Sweet, Australian actor
- May 26 - Margaret Colin, American actress
- May 27 - Siouxsie Sioux, British singer (Siouxsie and the Banshees)
- May 28 - Kirk Gibson, baseball player
- May 29 - Jeb Hensarling, American politician

June-October


- June 2 - King Lizzard, American entertainer
- June 3 - Horst-Ulrich Hänel, German field hockey player
- June 8 - Scott Adams, American cartoonist
- June 10 - Hidetsugu Aneha, Japanese one class authorized architect and builder
- June 11 - Jamaaladeen Tacuma, American musician
- June 12 - Javed Miandad, Pakistani cricketer
- June 19 - Anna Lindh, Swedish politician (d. 2003)
- July 13 - Cameron Crowe, American writer and film director
- June 13 - Frances McDormand, American actress
- July 23 - Theo van Gogh, Dutch film director (d. 2004)
- July 26 - Nana Visitor, American actress
- July 29 - Nelli Kim, Russian gymnast
- August 6 - Jim McGreevey, Governor of New Jersey
- August 7 - Mark Bagley, American comic book artist
- August 9 - Melanie Griffith, American actress
- August 11 - Richie Ramone, American drummer (The Ramones)
- August 18 - Carole Bouquet, French actress
- August 18 - Denis Leary, American comedian and actor
- August 24 - Stephen Fry, British comedian, author, and actor
- August 27 - Bernhard Langer, German golfer
- August 28 - Daniel Stern, American actor
- September 1 - Gloria Estefan, Cuban-born singer
- September 12 - Rachel Ward, British actress
- October 14 - Kenny Neal, American guitarist
- October 21 - Wolfgang Ketterle, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- October 26 - Bob Golic, American football player
- October 27 - Jeff East, American actor

November-December


- November 6 - Klaus Kleinfeld, German business executive
- November 7 - Christopher Knight, American actor November 9 - Spiro Agnew, American politician
- November 15 - Kevin Eubanks, American jazz guitarist
- November 24 - Denise Crosby, American actress
- November 30 - Colin Mochrie, Scottish-born comedian
- December 6 - Thomas Brinkman, American politician
- December 8 - Phil Collen, British singer and guitarist (Def Leppard)
- December 9 - Donny Osmond, American singer
- December 10 - Michael Clarke Duncan, American actor
- December 13 - Steve Buscemi, American actor
- December 13 - Morris Day, American musician (The Time (Band))
- December 13 - Jean-Marie Messier, French businessman
- December 20 - Billy Bragg, British singer
- December 20 - Joyce Hyser, American actress
- December 21 - Tom Henke, baseball player
- December 21 - Ray Romano, American actor and comedian
- December 30 - Matt Lauer, American newscaster

Unknown date


- Walter Moers, German comic artist and writer
- Eugene Spafford, American computer scientist

Deaths

January-March


- January 10 - Gabriela Mistral, Chilean writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1889)
- January 14 - Humphrey Bogart, American actor (b. 1899)
- January 16 - Arturo Toscanini, Italian conductor (b. 1867)
- February 8 - Walther Bothe, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1891)
- February 8 - John von Neumann, Hungarian-born mathematician (b. 1903)
- February 9 - Miklós Horthy, Hungarian admiral and regent (b. 1868)
- February 10 - Laura Ingalls Wilder, American author (b. 1867)
- February 18 - Henry Norris Russell, American astronomer (b. 1877)
- February 25 - George "Bugs" Moran, American gangster (b. 1893)
- March 11 - Admiral Richard E. Byrd, American explorer (b. 1888)
- March 16 - Constantin Brancusi, Romanian sculptor (b. 1876)
- March 17 - Ramon Magsaysay, President of the Philippines (b. 1907)
- March 25 - Max Ophüls, German film director and writer (b. 1902)
- March 29 - Joyce Cary, Irish author (b. 1888)

April-June


- May 2 - Joseph McCarthy, U.S. Senator (b. 1908)
- May 9 - Ezio Pinza, Italian bass (b. 1892)
- May 14 - Marie Vassilieff, Russian artist (b. 1884)
- May 16 - Eliot Ness, American Federal Bureau of Investigation agent (b. 1903)
- May 31 - Leopold Staff, Polish poet (b. 1878)
- June 17 - Dorothy Richardson, English feminist writer (b. 1873)
- June 21 - Johannes Stark, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1874)
- June 26 - Alfred Döblin, German writer (b. 1878)
- June 27 - Malcolm Lowry, English novelist (b. 1909)

July-September


- July 4 - Judy Tyler, American actress (b. 1933)
- July 24 - Sacha Guitry, Russian-born French playright, actor, and director (b. 1885)
- July 28 - Edith Abbott, American social worker, educator, and author (b. 1876)
- August 5 - Heinrich Otto Wieland, German chemist, Nobel Prize larueate (b. 1877)
- August 7 - Oliver Hardy, American actor (b. 1892)
- August 16 - Irving Langmuir, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1881)
- August 19 - David Bomberg, English painter (b. 1890)
- September 1 - Dennis Brain, English French horn player (b. 1921)
- September 20 - Jean Sibelius, Finnish composer (b. 1865)
- September 21 - Haakon VII of Norway (b. 1872)
- September 22 - Toyoda Soemu, Japanese admiral (b. 1885)

October-December


- October 25 - Edward Plunkett, Baron Dunsany, Irish author (b. 1878)
- October 26 - Gerty Cori, Austrian-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1896)
- October 29 - Louis B. Mayer, American film producer (b. 1885)
- November 4 - Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith (b. 1897)
- November 4 - Laika, first Russian dog to orbit the earth
- November 24 - Diego Rivera, Mexican painter (b. 1886)
- November 29 - Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Austrian composer (b. 1897)
- November 30 - Beniamino Gigli, Italian tenor (b. 1890)
- December 21 - Eric Coates, English composer (b. 1886)

Nobel Prizes


- Physics - Chen Ning Yang, Tsung-Dao Lee
- Chemistry- Lord Alexander R. Todd
- Physiology or Medicine - Daniel Bovet
- Literature - Albert Camus
- Peace - Lester Bowles Pearson Category:1957 als:1957 ko:1957년 ms:1957 ja:1957年 simple:1957 th:พ.ศ. 2500

Intermediate-range ballistic missile

An intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) is a ballistic missile with a range of 2500-3500 km.

See also


- Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty

Alternative use of launchers

IRBMs are frequently turned into small satellite launchers via the addition of (usually multiple) upper stages. In the United States, this happened to both the Thor and Jupiter. A derivative of the Jupiter, the Jupiter-C launched the U.S.'s first satellite, Explorer 1. Examples of IRBMs include:
- Hadès
- Jupiter
- Navaho (cancelled)
- Pluton
- Redstone
- Shavit
- Taepo Dong 2
- Thor
- Intermediate-range

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.

See also


- rocket fuel
- solid oxygen
- red oxygen

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

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 powered rockets (internal combustion engines). A chemical rocket engine can use solid propellant (see Space Shuttle's SRBs), liquid propellant (see Space shuttle main engine), or a hybrid mixture of both. A chemical reaction is initiated between the fuel and the oxidizer in the combustion chamber, and the resultant hot gases accelerate out of a nozzle (or nozzles) at the rearward facing end of the rocket. The acceleration of these gases through the engine exerts force ('thrust') on the combustion chamber and nozzle, propelling the vehicle (in accordance with Newton's Third Law). See rocket engine for details. Not all rockets use chemical reactions. Steam rockets, for example, release superheated water through a nozzle where it instantly flashes to high velocity steam, propelling the rocket. The efficiency of steam as a rocket propellant is relatively low, but it is simple and reasonably safe, and the propellant is cheap and widely available. Most steam rockets have been used for propelling land-based vehicles but a small steam rocket was tested in 2004 on board the UK-DMC satellite. There are proposals to use steam rockets for interplanetary transport using either nuclear or solar heating as the power source to vaporize water collected from around the solar system. Rockets where the heat is supplied from other than the propellant, such as steam rockets, are classed as external combustion engines. Other examples of external combustion rocket engines include most designs for nuclear powered rocket engines. Use of hydrogen as the propellant for external combustion engines gives very high velocities. Due to their high exhaust velocity (mach ~10+), rockets are particularly useful when very high speeds are required, such as orbital speed (mach 25). The speeds that a rocket vehicle can reach can be calculated by the rocket equation; which gives the speed difference ('delta-v') in terms of the exhaust speed and ratio of initial mass to final mass ('mass ratio'). Rockets must be used when there is no other substance (land, water, or air) or force (gravity, magnetism, light) that a vehicle may employ for propulsion, such as in space. In these circumstances, it is necessary to carry all the propellant to be used. Common mass ratios for vehicles are 20/1 for dense propellants such as liquid oxygen and kerosene, 25/1 for dense monopropellants such as hydrogen peroxide, and 10/1 for liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. However, mass ratio is highly dependent on many factors such as the type of engine the vehicle uses and structural safety margins. Often, the required velocity (delta-v) for a mission is unattainable by any single rocket because the propellant, structure, guidance and engines weigh so much as to prevent the mass ratio from being high enough. This problem is frequently solved by staging - the rocket sheds excess weight (usually tankage and engines) during launch to reduce its weight and effectively increase its mass ratio. Typically, the acceleration of a rocket increases with time (even if the thrust stays the same) as the weight of the rocket decreases as fuel is burned. Discontinuities in acceleration will occur when stages burn out, often starting at a lower acceleration with each new stage firing.

History

Origins of rocketry

staging The ancient Chinese invention of gunpowder by Taoist chemists, and their use of it in various forms of weapons: (fire arrows), bombs, and cannons, resulted in the development of the rocket. They were initially developed for religious proceedings that were related to the worship and celebration of the Chinese Gods in the ancient Chinese religion. They were the precursors to modern fireworks and, after extensive research, were adapted for use as artillery in warfare during the 10th century to 12th century. Some of the ancient Chinese rockets were stationed at the military fortification known as the Great Wall of China, and employed by the elite soldiers stationed there. Rocket technology first became known to Europeans following their use by the Mongols Genghis Khan and Ogodei Khan when they conquered Russia, Eastern Europe, and parts of Central Europe(i.e. Austria). The Mongolians had stolen the Chinese technology by conquest of the northern part of China and also by the subsequent employment of Chinese rocketry experts as mercenaries for the Mongol military. Additionally, the spread of rockets into Europe was also influenced by the Ottomans at the siege of Constantinople in 1453. Although it is very likely that the Ottomans themselves were influenced by the Mongol invasions of the previous few centuries. Nevertheless, for several more centuries rockets remained misunderstood curiosities to those in the West. For over two centuries, the work of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth nobleman Kazimierz Siemienowicz, "Artis Magnae Artilleriae pars prima" ("Great Art of Artillery, the First Part". also known as "The Complete Art of Artillery"), was used in Europe as a basic artillery manual. The book provided the standard designs for creating rockets, fireballs, and other pyrotechnic devices. It contained a large chapter on caliber, construction, production and properties of rockets (for both military and civil purposes), including multi-stage rockets, batteries of rockets, and rockets with delta wing stabilizers (instead of the common guiding rods). At the end of the 18th century, rockets were successfully used militarily in India against the British by Tipu Sultan of the Kingdom of Mysore during the first Mysore War. The British then took an active interest in the technology and developed it further during the 19th century. The major figure in the field at this time was William Congreve. From there, the use of military rockets spread throughout Europe. At the Battle of Baltimore in 1814, the rockets fired on Fort McHenry by the rocket vessel HMS Erebus were the source of the rockets' red glare described by Francis Scott Key in The Star-Spangled Banner. Early rockets were very inaccurate. Without the use of spinning or any gimballing of the thrust, they had a strong tendency to veer sharply off course. The early British Congreve rockets reduced this somewhat by attaching a long stick to the end of a rocket (similar to modern bottle rockets) to make it harder for the rocket to change course. The largest of the Congreve rockets was the 32 pound (14.5 kg) Carcass, which had a 15 foot (4.6 m) stick. Originally, sticks were mounted on the side, but this was later changed to mounting in the center of the rocket, reducing drag and enabling the rocket to be more accurately fired from a segment of pipe. gimbal The accuracy problem was mostly solved in 1844 when William Hale modified the rocket design so that thrust was slightly vectored to cause the rocket to spin along its axis of travel like a bullet. The Hale rocket removed the need for a rocket stick, travelled further due to reduced air resistance, and was far more accurate.

Modern rocketry

In 1903, high school mathematics teacher Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935) published Исследование мировых пространств реактивными приборами (The Exploration of Cosmic Space by Means of Reaction Motors), the first serious scientific work on space travel. The Tsiolkovsky rocket equation—the principle that governs rocket propulsion—is named in his honor. His work was essentially unknown outside the Soviet Union, where it inspired further research, experimentation, and the formation of the Cosmonautics Society. His work was republished in the 1920s in response to Russian interest in the work of Robert Goddard. Among other ideas, Tsiolkovsky accurately proposed to use liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen as a nearly optimal propellant pair and determined that building staged and clustered rockets to increase the overall mass efficiency would dramatically increase range. Early rockets were grossly inefficient because of the heat energy that was wasted in the exhaust gases. Modern rockets were born when, after receiving a grant in 1917 from the Smithsonian Institution, Robert Goddard attached a supersonic (de Laval) nozzle to a rocket engine's combustion chamber. These nozzles turn the hot gas from the combustion chamber into a cooler, hypersonic, highly directed jet of gas; more than doubling the thrust and enormously raising the efficiency. In 1923, Hermann Oberth (1894-1989) published Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen ("The Rocket into Planetary Space"), a version of his doctoral thesis, after the University of Munich rejected it. This book is often credited as the first serious scientific work on the topic that received international attention. During 1920s, a number of rocket research organizations appeared in America, Austria, Britain, Czechoslovakia, France, Italy, Germany, and Russia. In the mid-1920s, German scientists had begun experimenting with rockets which used liquid propellants capable of reaching relatively high altitudes and distances. A team of amateur rocket engineers had formed the Verein für Raumschiffahrt (German Rocket Society, or VfR) in 1927, and in 1931 launched a liquid propellant rocket (using oxygen and gasoline). From 1931 to 1937, the most extensive scientific work on rocket engine design occurred in Leningrad, at the Gas Dynamics Laboratory. Well funded and staffed, over 100 experimental engines were built under the direction of Valentin Glushko. Work included regenerative cooling, hypergolic ignition, and fuel injector designs that included swirling and bi-propellant mixing injectors. Work was curtailed by Glushko's arrest during Stalinist purges in 1938. Similar but much less extensive work was also done by the Austrian professor Eugen Sänger. In 1932, the Reichswehr (which in 1935 became the Wehrmacht) began to take an interest in rocketry. Artillery restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles limited Germany's access to long distance weaponry. Seeing the possibility of using rockets as long-range artillery fire, the Wehrmacht initially funded the VfR team, but seeing that their focus was strictly scientific, created its own research team, with Hermann Oberth as a senior member. At the behest of military leaders, Wernher von Braun, at the time a young aspiring rocket scientist, joined the military (followed by two former VfR members) and developed long-range weapons for use in World War II by Nazi Germany, notably the A-series of rockets, which led to the infamous V-2 rocket (initially called A4). In 1943, production of the V-2 rocket began. The V-2 represented the biggest step forward in rocketry ever. The V-2 had an operational range of 300 km (185 miles) and carried a 1000 kg (2204 lb) warhead, with an amatol explosive charge. The vehicle was only different in details from most modern rockets, with turbopumps, inertial guidance and many other features. Thousands were fired at various Allied nations, mainly England, as well as Belgium and France. While they could not be intercepted, their guidance system design and single conventional warhead meant that the V-2 was insufficiently accurate against military targets. 2,754 people in England were killed, and 6,523 were wounded before the launch campaign was terminated. While the V-2 did not significantly affect the course of the war, it provided a lethal demonstration of the potential for guided rockets as weapons. At the end of World War II, competing Russian, British, and U.S. military and scientific crews raced to capture technology and trained personnel from the German rocket program at Peenemünde. Russia and Britain had some success, but the United States benefited most. The US captured a large number of German rocket scientists (many of whom were members of the Nazi Party, including von Braun) and brought them to the United States as part of Operation Paperclip. There the same rockets that were designed to rain down on Britain were used instead by scientists as research vehicles for developing the new technology further. The V-2 evolved into the American Redstone rocket, used in the early space program. After the war, rockets were used to study high-altitude conditions, by radio telemetry of temperature and pressure of the atmosphere, detection of cosmic rays, and further research. This continued in the U.S. under von Braun and the others, who were destined to become part of the U.S. scientific complex. Independently, research continued in the Soviet Union under the leadership of Sergei Korolev. With the help of German technicians, the V-2 was duplicated and improved as the R-1, R-2 and R-5 missiles. German designs were abandoned in the late 1940s, and the foreign workers were sent home. A new series of engines built by Glushko and based on inventions of Aleksei Isaev formed the basis of the first ICBM, the R-7. The R-7 launched the first satellite, the first man into space and the first lunar and planetary probes, and is still in use today. These events attracted the attention of top politicians, along with more money for further research. Rockets became extremely military important in the form of ICBMs when it was realised that nuclear weapons carried on a rocket vehicle were essentially not defensible against once launched, and they became the delivery platform of choice for these weapons. Fuelled partly by the cold war, the 1960s became the decade of rapid development of rocket technology in the Soviet Union (Vostok, Soyuz, Proton) and in the United States (e.g. X-20 Dyna-Soar, Gemini), including research in other countries, such as Britain, Japan, Australia, etc., culminating at the end of the 60s with the manned landing on the moon via the Saturn V. Rockets remain a popular military weapon. The use of large battlefield rockets of the V-2 type has given way to guided missiles, but rockets are often used by helicopters and light aircraft for ground attack, being more powerful than machine guns, but without the recoil of a heavy cannon. In the 1950s there was a brief vogue for air-to-air rockets, including the formidable AIR-2 'Genie' nuclear rocket, but by the early 1960s these had largely been abandoned in favor of air-to-air missiles. However in the heart of many of the public, the most important use of rockets is manned spaceflight. Vehicles such as Soyuz for orbital tourism and Spaceship One for suborbital tourism show the way towards greater commercialisation of rocketry, away from government funding, and towards more widespread access to space.

Regulation

Under international law, the nationality of the owner of a launch vehicle determines which country is responsible for any damages resulting from that vehicle. Due to this, some countries require that rocket manufacturers and launchers adhere to specific regulations to indemnify and protect the safety of people and property that may be affected by a flight. In the US any rocket launch that is not classified as amateur, and also is not "for and by the government," must be approved by the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation (FAA/AST), located in Washington, DC.

Accidents

Because of the enormous chemical energy in all useful rocket fuels (greater weight for weight than in explosives), accidents can and have happened. The number of people injured or killed is usually small because of the great care typically taken, but this record is not perfect. See List of space disasters

Future


- Nuclear thermal rockets have also been developed, but never deployed, they are particularly promising for interplanetary use because of their high efficiency.
- [http://www.neofuel.com Neofuel] - Nuclear/solar steam rockets for interplanetary use, using abundant extraterrestrial ice.
- Nuclear pulse propulsion rocket concepts give very high thrust and exhaust velocities. Another class of rocket-like thrusters in increasingly common use are ion drives, which use electrical rather than chemical energy to accelerate their reaction mass.

See also


- Timeline of rocket and missile technology
- List of rockets
- Bipropellant rocket
- Hybrid rocket
- Model rocket
- Pulse jet engine
- Pulsed Rocket Motors
- Rocket fuel
- Rocket launch
- Rocket propelled grenade
- Rocket sled
- Sounding rocket
- Skyrocket
- Solid rocket
- Spacecraft propulsion
- Stalin Organ
- Tripropellant rocket
- Water rocket
- Tsiolkovsky rocket equation
- Fire Arrow
- Shin Ki Chon

Patents of interest


- - Rocket apparatus - R. H. Goddard
- - Rocket apparatus - R. H. Goddard

External links

; Governing agencies
- [http://ast.faa.gov/ FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation]
- [http://www.nasa.gov National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)]
- [http://www.nar.org National Association of Rocketry]
- [http://www.tripoli.org Tripoli Rocketry Association]
- [http://www.canadianrocketry.org Canadian Association of Rocketry]
- [http://www.hobby.org Hobby Industry Association]
- [http://www.rchta.org Radio Control Hobby Trade Association]
- [http://www.ja-r.net Japan Association of Rocketry (site in Japanese)]
- [http://www.isro.org Indian Space Research Organisation] ; Information sites
- [http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/ Encyclopedia Astronautica - Rocket and Missile Alphabetical Index]
- [http://space.skyrocket.de Gunter's Space Page - Complete Rocket and Missile Lists] Category:Rocket-powered aircraft Category:Rocketry ja:ロケット ms:Roket

Thor (rocket)

Thor was the United States's first operational ballistic missile. It was deployed with thermonuclear warheads in the UK between 1959 and 1963. It went on to spawn a string of space launch vehicles. Its descendants fly to this day as the Delta series of rockets.

Reasons for development

Fearful that the Soviet Union would deploy a long-range ballistic missile before the United States, in January 1956 the Air Force began developing the Thor, a 1,500 mile (2,400 km) intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM). The Thor program unfolded with amazing speed, and within 3 years of the program’s inception the first Thor squadron became operational in the UK. One of the perks of the design was that, unlike the Jupiter IRBM, the Thor was able to be carried by the USAF's cargo aircraft of the time, which made its deployment more rapid, although the launch facilities were not transportable, and had to be built on site. The Thor was a stop-gap measure, however, and once the first generation of ICBMs based in the United States became operational, the Thor missiles were quickly retired. The last of the missiles was withdrawn from operational alert in 1963.

IRBM Specifications


- Popular Name: Thor.
- Type: Intermediate range ballistic missile.
- IOC: 1958. Year: 1958.
- Family: Thor IRBM, Thor DM-18 (single stage LV); Thor DM-19 (rocket 1st stage), Thor DM-21 (rocket 1st stage), Thor DSV-2D,E,F,G (suborbital LV), Thor DSV-2J (anti-ballistic missile), Thor DSV-2U (orbital launch vehicle).
- Country: USA. Department of Defense
- Designation: PGM-17A.
- Alternate Designation: SM-75, PTM-17A, USM-75
- Manufacturer: Douglas Aircraft Company
- Thrust (vac): 760 kN
- Liftoff Thrust (sl): 670 kN (150,000 lbf)
- Isp: 282 lbf·s/lb (2.77 kN·s/kg)
- Isp(sl): 248 lbf·s/lb (2.43 kN·s/kg)
- Burn time: 165 s
- Core Diameter: 2.44 m
- Total Length: 19.82 m (65 ft)
- Span: 2.74 m (8 ft)
- Weight: 49,800 kg (110,000 lb)
- Empty Weight: 3,125 kg
- Standard warhead mass: 1,000 kg
- Maximum range: 2,400 km. (1,500 miles)
- Ceiling: 480 km (300 miles)
- Number Standard Warheads: 1.
- Standard RV: Mk. 2.
- Standard warhead: W49.
- Standard warhead yield: 1,440 kt of TNT (6.02 PJ)
- Standard warhead CEP: 1 km
- Boost Propulsion: Liquid rocket, Lox/Kerosene.
- Power plant:
  - Main: Rocketdyne LR79-NA-9 (Model S-3D); 666 kN (150000 lbf)
  - Vernier: 2x Rocketdyne LR101-NA; 4.5 kN (1000 lbf) each
  - Manufacturer Name: MB-1.
  - Government Designation: LR-79-7.
  - Designer: Rocketdyne.
  - Developed in: 1955.
  - Application:
  - Used on stages: Thor DM-19.
  - Used on launch vehicles: Delta, Thor, Thor Able, Thor Agena A, Thor Agena B, Thor Agena D, Thor Burner.
  - Propellants: Lox/Kerosene
  - Thrust (vac): 760 kN
  - Isp: 282 lbf·s/lb (2.77 kN·s/kg)
  - Isp (sea level): 248 lbf·s/lb (2.43 kN·s/kg)
  - Burn time: 165 s
  - Mass Engine: 643 kg
  - Diameter: 2.44 m
  - Chambers: 1
  - Chamber Pressure: 4.1 MPa
  - Area Ratio: 8.00
  - Thrust to Weight Ratio: 120.32 lbf/lb (1180 N/kg)
  - Country: USA
  - Status: Out of Production.
  - First Flight: 1958
  - Last Flight: 1980
  - Flown: 145.
  - Comments: Designed for booster applications. Gas generator, pump-fed
- Guidance: Inertial
- Maximum speed: 17,740 km/h (11,000 mph)
- Development Cost US dollars: $500 million
- Recurring Price US dollars: $6.25 million
- Total Number Built: 224
- Total Development Built: 64
- Total Production Built: 160
- Flyaway Unit Cost: US$750,000 in 1958 dollars
- Launches: 59
- Failures: 14
- Success Rate: 76.27%
- First Launch Date: 25 January 1957
- Last Launch Date: 5 November 1975

Initial development as an IRBM

Development of the Thor was initiated by the US Air Force in 1954 as a Tactical Ballistic Missile. The goal was a missile system that could deliver a nuclear warhead over a distance of 1150 to 2300 miles (1900 to 3700 km) with a CEP of 2 miles (3 km). This range would allow Moscow to be hit from a launch site in the UK The initial design studies were headed by Cmdr. Robert Truax (US. Navy) and Dr. Adolph K. Thiel (Ramo-Wooldridge Corp, formerly of Redstone Arsenal). They refined the specs to an IRBM with:
- A 1750 mile (2,820 km) range
- 8 ft (2.4 m) diameter, 65 ft (20 m) long (so it could be carried by Douglas C-124 Globemaster)
- A gross takeoff weight of 110,000 lb (50,000 kg)
- Propulsion provided by half of the Navaho-derived Atlas booster engine (due, largely, to the lack of any alternatives at this early date)
- 10,000 mph (4.5 km/s) maximum speed during warhead reentry
- AC Spark Plug inertial guidance system with radio backup (for low susceptibility to enemy disruption) On November 30, 1955 three companies were given one week to bid on the project: Douglas, Lockheed, and North American Aviation. They were asked to create "a management team that could pull together existing technology, skills, abilities, and techniques in 'an unprecedented time.'" On December 27, 1955 Douglas Aircraft Corporation was awarded the prime contract for the airframe and integration. The Rocketdyne division of North American Aviation was awarded the engine contract, AC Spark Plug the primary inertial guidance system, Bell Labs the backup radio guidance system, and General Electric the nose cone/reentry vehicle. Douglas further refined the design by choosing bolted tank bulkheads (as opposed to the initially suggested welded ones) and a tapered fuel tank for improved aerodynamics. The engine was developed as a direct descendant of the Atlas MA-3 booster engine. Changes involved removal of one thrust chamber and a rerouting of the plumbing to allow the engine to fit within the smaller Thor boat-tail. Engine tests where being performed as of March 1956. The first engineering model engine was available in June, followed by the first flight engine in September. Engine development was complicated by serious turbopump problems. Early Thor engines suffered from what was known as "Bearing Walking', whereby the turbopump bearings shift axially within their housing, causing rapid wear and the bearings to seize.

Launch Pad

Thor test launches were to be from LC17 at Cape Canaveral. The development schedule was so compressed that plans for the Atlas bunker were used to allow the completion of the facility in time. Nevertheless pad LC17-B was just ready for the first test flight.

First Launches

The first flight of the Thor IRBM was on 25 January 1957. The first airframe, number 101 was delivered in October of the previous year. The vehicle reached an apogee of 6 in (150 mm) whereupon contamination destroyed a LOX supply valve causing the engine to lose thrust. The Thor slid backwards through the launch ring and exploded on contact with the thrust deflector. Serious pad damage occurred. The second Thor flight (102) lasted 35 seconds after an April 1957 launch. It was ended by a range safety officer who acted on faulty data from a readout which showed the missile heading inland over Florida. Thor vehicle 103 (May 1957) exploded on the pad during tanking due to a faulty main fuel valve resulting in tank overpressurization leading to tank rupture. Thor vehicle 104 (Aug 1957) broke up after 92 seconds due to a loss of guidance. Thor vehicle 105 (20 September 1957), 21 months after the start of construction, flew 1100 miles (1,800 km) downrange. Estimated range without the extra load of the R&D instrumentation was 1500 miles (2,400 km). 1957 saw five more flights, the longest of which covered 2700 miles (4,300 km).

Deployment

Thor was deployed to the UK starting in August 1958. All sixty of the Thor missiles deployed in the UK were based at above-ground launch sites. The missiles were stored horizontally on transporter-erector trailers and covered by a retractable missile shelter. To fire the weapon, the crew electronically rolled back the missile shelter and then, using a powerful hydraulic launcher-erector, lifted the missile to an upright position. Once it was standing on the launch mount, the missile was fueled and fired. The entire launch sequence took about 15 minutes. When the launch control officer pressed the firing button, the main engine ignited with a roar. It burned for almost 2.5 minutes, boosting the missile to a speed of 14,400 ft/s (4.4 km/s). Ten minutes into its flight the missile reached an altitude of 280 miles (450 km), close to the apogee of its elliptical flight path. At that point the reentry vehicle separated from the fuselage and began its descent down toward the target. Total flight time from launch to impact was about 18 minutes.

Noteworthy Thor IRBM flights


- 4 June 1962, failed Starfish flight, Thor destroyed, nuclear device lost.
- 20 June 1962, failed Starfish Prime flight, Thor destroyed, nuclear device lost.
- 9 July 1962, Thor missile 195 launches a Mk4 reentry vehicle containing a W49 thermonuclear warhead to an altitude of 250 miles (400 km). The warhead detonates with a yield of 1.45 Mt of TNT (6.07 PJ). This was the Starfish Double Prime event of nuclear test operation Dominic-Fishbowl.

Thor becomes a launch vehicle

Dominic-Fishbowl Dominic-Fishbowl Thor was noted as forming a good basis for a space launch vehicle early in its development. The first space launch type of mission Thor was asked to perform was the testing of the Atlas reentry vehicle. For these three tests a Thor core stage was topped by a second stage named Able using the Aerojet AJ-10-40 engine from the Vanguard second stage. The first such launch, 116, was lost due to turbopump failure of the main engine. The results of two succeeding attempts are unknown to this author. Thor vehicle 127 was a three stage Thor-Able-Star. The Able stage from the Atlas reentry vehicle tests was upgraded (to become the Able I) and topped with a third stage consisting of an unguided Altair X-248 solid rocket motor. The mission was to place the 84 lb (38 kg) Pioneer spacecraft into lunar orbit where it would take pictures of the lunar surface with a TV camera. The mission ended prematurely at 77 seconds after launch due to yet another turbopump failure.

Thor and the Corona program

Thor formed the core of the Thor-Agena vehicle used to launch the United State's first spy satellites as part of the Corona program.

Thor becomes Delta

A fourth modification to Thor for space launch purposes has proven to be the longest-lasting of all Thor-derived rockets. The Thor-Delta or Delta rocket continues to launch satellites and space probes for the United States to this day.

Thrust Augmented Thor

The Thrust Augmented Thor, or TAT, was developed to handle the growing recon sats of the Corona program. It added three Castor solid rocket strapon boosters—each providing 53,000 lbf (236 kN) thrust—to the standard Thor core stage. The boosters were lit on the ground and jettisoned after burnout.

Long Tank Thor


- Tapered fuel tank changed to cylindrical.
- Both tanks lengthened.
- Core stage 14 feet (4.3 m) longer.
- 49,000 lb (22,000 kg) more propellant.

References


- Forsyth, Kevin S. (2002). Delta: The Ultimate Thor. In Roger Launius and Dennis Jenkins (Eds.), To Reach The High Frontier: A History of U.S. Launch Vehicles. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0813122457

External links


- [http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/thor.htm Thor] from Encyclopedia Astronautica
- [http://www.geocities.com/thor_irbm/ Thor IRBM History site]
- [http://kevinforsyth.net/delta/ History of the Delta Launch Vehicle]

Related content

Related development: Comparable aircraft: Jupiter IRBM Designation sequence: MIM-14 - RGM-15 - CGM-16/HGM-16 - PGM-17 - MGM-18 - PGM-19 - ADM-20 Designation sequence: SR-71/GAM-71 - XGAM-72 - SM-73 - SM-75 - TM-76 Mace - GAM-77 - SM-78 Related lists: List of missiles ja:ソー Category:Intermediate-range ballistic missiles

1955

1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar.

Events


- January 7 - Marian Anderson is the first African American singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.
- January 22 - Pentagon announces plan to develop ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles) armed with nuclear weapons
- February 8 - Nikolai Bulganin becomes Soviet Premier.
- February 12 - US President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends the first U.S. advisors to South Vietnam.
- February 22 - In Chicago's Democratic primary, Mayor Martin H. Kennelly loses to the head of the Cook County Democratic Party, Richard J. Daley, 364,839 to 264,775
- March 20 - Blackboard Jungle opens in theaters featuring the song Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley and his Comets, thus propelling Rock and Roll as a musical genre. Teenagers jump from their seats to dance to the song.
- April 5 - Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
- April 5 - Richard J. Daley defeats Robert Merrian to become mayor of Chicago by a vote of 708,222 to 581,555.
- April 6 - Anthony Eden becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
- April 12 - The Salk polio vaccine is introduced.
- April 15 - Ray Kroc starts the McDonald's fast food restaurant chain.
- April 18 - Imre Nagy, premier of Hungary, ousted for being too moderate
- May 5 - West Germany becomes a sovereign state.
- May 9 - West Germany joins NATO.
- May 14 - The Warsaw Pact is formed by the communist states of Eastern Europe and the USSR.
- May 31 - The United States Supreme Court orders school integration at "all deliberate speed"
- July 17 - Disneyland opens.
- July 18 - The first atomic-generated electrical power is sold commercially.
- July 18 - Illinois's Govenor William Stratton signs Loyalty Oath Act that mandates all public employees take a loyalty oath or lose their jobs.
- July 18 - Beginning of Geneva Summit between US, USSR, England, and France.
- July 23 - Geneva Summit between US, USSR, England, and France ends.
- August 19 - Hurricane Diane hits the northeast United States, killing 200 and causing over $1 billion in damage.
- August 20 - Hundreds killed in anti-French rioting in Morocco and Algeria.
- August 25 - The last Soviet forces leave Austria.
- September 10 - Gunsmoke debuts on CBS.
- September 19 - President of Argentina Juan Peron is ousted in a military coup.
- September 19 - Hurricane Hilda kills 200 in Mexico.
- September 22 - Commercial television begins in England.
- September 24 - U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower suffers coronary thrombosis while on vacation in Denver.
- September 30 - Actor James Dean killed in car accident near Cholame, California.
- October 4 - The Reverend Sun Myung Moon is released from prison in Seoul, Korea.
- October 26 - Ngo Dinh Diem proclaims Vietnam a republic with himself as president.
- November 1 - Time bomb explodes aboard a United Airlines DC-6 killing 44 above Longmont, Colorado.
- November 5 - Racial segregation is forbidden on trains and buses in interstate commerce.
- November 5 - Dr. Emmett Brown invents the Flux Capacitor.
- November 23 - The Cocos Islands are transferred from the control of the United Kingdom to Australia.
- December 1 - Montgomery, Alabama seamstress, Rosa Parks, refuses to give up her bus seat to a white man and is arrested.
- December 5 - The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merge to become the AFL-CIO.
- December 14 - Tappan Zee Bridge in New York opens to traffic.
- December 31 - General Motors becomes the first American corporation to make over USD $1 billion in a year.
- 70 mm film is introduced with Oklahoma!.
- Düsseldorf-Mönchengladbach Airport (Flughafen Düsseldorf-Mönchengladbach) was founded.

Births

January-February


- January 2 - Tex Brashear, American voice actor
- January 6 - Rowan Atkinson, English comedian and actor
- January 12 - Rockne O'Bannon, writer and television producer
- January 13 - Jay McInerney, American writer
- January 15 - Nigel Benson, British author and illustrator
- January 17 - Steve Earle, American musician
- January 18 - Kevin Costner, American actor
- January 22 - Neil Mallon Bush, son of George Bush and Barbara Pierce Bush and brother of President George W. Bush
- January 19 - Simon Rattle, English conductor
- January 26 - Edward Van Halen, Dutch-born musician
- January 27 - John Roberts, Chief Justice of the United States
- February 3 - Stephen Euin Cobb, American novelist
- February 8 -