Scout (rocket family)
The Scout family of rockets were American launch vehicles designed to place small satellites into orbit around the Earth. The Scout multistage rocket was the first orbital launch vehicle to be entirely composed of solid fuel stages.
The original Scout was designed in 1957 at the NACA, at Langley center. Scout launch vehicles were used from 1961 until 1994. To enhance reliability the development team opted to use "off the shelf" hardware, originally produced for military programs. According to the NASA fact sheet:
"... the first stage motor was a combination of the Jupiter Senior and the Navy Polaris; the second stage came from the Army MGM-29 Sergeant; and the third and fourth stage motors were designed by Langley engineers who adapted a version of the Navy Vanguard."
The first successful orbital launch of a Scout, on February 16, 1961, delivered Explorer 9, a 7-kg satellite used for atmospheric density studies, into orbit.
The final launch of a Scout, using a Scout G-1, was on May 8, 1994 from Vandenberg Air Force Base. The payload was the Miniature Sensor Technology Integration Series 2 military spacecraft with a mass of. MSTI-2 successfully acquired and tracked a LGM-30 Minuteman missile.
The standard Scout launch vehicle was a solid propellant, four-stage booster system, approximately in length with a launch weight of.
Scout A (original version)
The Scout A was used for launches of the Transit NNSS series, placing two satellites in orbit at the same time. Twelve flights were conducted between 21 December 1965 and 27 August 1970.It was also used to launch a British scientific satellite.
Standard payload capability was 122 kg into a low-Earth orbit.
Parameters
- Thrust at liftoff: 513.40 kN
- Mass at launch: 17,850 kg
- Diameter: 1.01 m
- Length: 25.00 m
- Derived from Polaris missile
- Gross Mass: 11,600 kg
- Empty Mass: 1,650 kg
- Vacuum thrust: 564.25 kN
- Burn time: 47 s
- Diameter: 1.01 m
- Span: 1.01 m
- Length: 9.09 m
- Derived from Sergeant missile
- Gross Mass: 4,424 kg
- Empty Mass: 695 kg
- Vacuum thrust: 258.92 kN
- Burn time: 37 s
- Diameter: 0.79 m
- Span: 0.79 m
- Length: 6.04 m
- Gross Mass: 1,400 kg
- Empty Mass: 300 kg
- Vacuum thrust: 93.09 kN
- Burn time: 36 s
- Diameter: 0.78 m
- Span: 0.78 m
- Length: 2.90 m
- Gross Mass: 275 kg
- Empty Mass: 37 kg
- Vacuum thrust: 22.24 kN
- Burn time: 28 s
- Diameter: 0.64 m
- Span: 0.64 m
- Length: 2.53 m
Scout-X1 (NASA)
The basic NASA Scout configuration, from which all variants were derived, was known as Scout-X1. It was a four-stage rocket, which used the following motors:
- 1st stage: Aerojet General Algol
- 2nd stage: Thiokol XM33 Castor
- 3rd stage: Allegany Ballistics Laboratory X-254 Antares
- 4th stage: Allegany Ballistics Laboratory X-248 Altair
Satellites orbited
- San Marco 1, the first Italian satellite, launched by an Italian crew.
- San Marco 2, the second Italian satellite and first in the world launched from a sea platform. Three more San Marco satellites would use Scout rockets. Italy owned San Marco platform launched in 1967-1984 Scout rockets only.
- AEREOS and AEROS B atmospheric research
- Ariel 3, the first satellite designed and constructed in the United Kingdom, and four other Ariel satellites including first satellite for radioastronomy - Ariel 2.
- Magsat, the first globally complete 3D map of Earth's magnetic fields.
- Transit satellites, a prototype satellite Transit 5A was launched 1962-12-19 by a Scout X-3. On four different flights, Scout rockets placed two Transit satellites in orbit with a single launch. The last of these, on 1988-08-25, launched Transit-O 31 and Transit O-25 on a Scout G rocket.
- OFO-A, launched bullfrogs into space for biological experiments
- FR-1, a French satellite used to study VLF propagation
- Astronomical Netherlands Satellite, ANS was the first Dutch satellite. was a space-based X-ray and ultraviolet telescope.
- Miniature Sensor Technology Integration Series 2, launched into low earth orbit on 8 May 1994 local time aboard the last NASA SCOUT booster.
- Explorer 9,13,13,16,19,20,22,23,24,27,30,37,39,42,45,46,48,52,53,56, and 57
- Uhuru, the first XRay orbital observatory, which confirmed the first black hole detected Cygnus X-1
- ESRO 1 A/B, 2A/B,
- Miranda
- ANS 1
- San Marco 4,5
- Triad 2
- Gravity Probe A
- Triad 3
- Transat
- AEM 1,2
- Nova 1
- Nova 2
- HILAT
- Nova 3
- ITV 1,2
- Polar Bear
- REX 1
- SAMPEX
- Radical
- DSAP 1 F1,F2,F3,F4,F5
- RFD 1,2.
- OTV3 1,2,3,4,5.
Scout designations
Some other Scout designations were:
- The Scout X-2 which in 1962 introduced the Algol 1D and Antares IIB stage upgrades. On 1962-08-23 a Scout X-2 was used for the first successful launch of a DMSP satellite, lifting off from Point Arguello near Vandenberg Air Force Base.
- The Scout X-3 which in 1963 introduced the Algol IIA upgrade.
- The Scout X-4 which in 1963 introduced Altair 2 upgrade.
- The Scout A-1 and B-1 which in 1965 introduced the Castor IIA and Altair III upgrades, respectively.
- The Scout D-1 which in 1972 introduced the Algol III upgrade.
- The Scout G flew from 1974 until the Scout's retirement in 1994. It was rated to orbit a 210 kg payload.
XRM-89 Blue Scout I (USAF)
By using different combinations of rocket stages, the USAF created several different Blue Scout configurations. One of these was the XRM-89 Blue Scout I, which was a three-stage vehicle, using Castor 2 and an Antares 1A stages, but omitting the basic Scout's Altair 4th stage. The first launch of an XRM-89 occurred on 1961-01-07, and was mostly successful. On that flight, the XRM-89 carried a variety of experiments to measure rocket performance and high-altitude fields and particle radiation. The payload was located in a recoverable reentry capsule, but the capsule sank before it could be recovered from the water. The only other XRM-89 launches were unsuccessful, and the Blue Scout I program was terminated in 1962.
XRM-90 Blue Scout II (USAF)
The XRM-90 Blue Scout II was a rocket of the U.S. Air Force's System 609A Blue Scout family. The XRM-90 was a four-stage rocket, which used the same stages as the basic NASA Scout. It was nevertheless not identical to the latter, because the 4th stage was hidden in a payload fairing with the same diameter as the 3rd stage, and the first stage nozzle used a flared tail skirt between the fins. Externally, the XRM-90 was indistinguishable from the XRM-89 Blue Scout I.The first XRM-90 launch occurred on 1961-03-03, followed by a second one on 1961-04-12. Both sub-orbital flights were successful, and measured radiation levels in the Van Allen belts. The second Blue Scout II also carried a micrometeorite sampling experiment, but the recovery of the reentry capsule failed. The third XRM-90 was used by NASA in November 1961 for Mercury-Scout 1. This was an attempt to orbit a communications payload for Project Mercury, but the rocket failed after 28 seconds of flight. The USAF subsequently abandoned the XRM-89 Blue Scout I and XRM-90 Blue Scout II vehicles, and shifted to the RM-91/SLV-1B Blue Scout Junior instead.
Blue Scout II parameters
- Total length: 21.65 m
- Finspan: 2.84 m
- Mass: 30 kg
- To: 300 km orbit
- Att: 28.0 degrees
- Apogee: 2,500 km
XRM-91 Blue Scout Junior / Journeyman B (USAF)
The first launch of an XRM-91 occurred on September 21, 1960, making it actually the first Blue Scout configuration to fly. The flight was planned to make radiation and magnetic field measurements at distances of up to 26 700 km from earth, and while the rocket did indeed achieve this altitude, the telemetry system failed so that no data was received. The second launch in November ended with a failure during second stage burn. The third flight was to measure particle densities in the Van Allen belts and reached a distance of 225 000 km, but again a telemetry failure prevented the reception of scientific data. The fourth and final XRM-91 mission in December 1961 also carried particle detectors, and was the only completely successful flight of the initial Blue Scout Junior program.
The Blue Scout Junior was regarded by the USAF as the most useful of the various Blue Scout configurations. It was used between 1962 and 1965 by the Air Force as the SLV-1B/C launch vehicle for suborbital scientific payloads. The SLV-1C was also chosen as the rocket for the MER-6A interim ERCS vehicle; this provided a reliable and survivable emergency communications method for the United States National Command Authority, using a UHF repeater that would transmit pre-recorded messages to all units within line-of-sight of the rocket's apogee.
NASA used a three-stage Blue Scout Junior configuration as the RAM B.
San Marco Project
The Italian space research program began in 1959 with the creation of the CRA at the University of Rome. Three years later, on 7 September 1962, the university signed a memorandum of understanding with NASA to collaborate on a space research program named San Marco. The Italian launch team was trained by NASA.The San Marco project was focused on the launching of scientific satellites by Scout rockets from a mobile rigid platform located close to the equator. This station, composed of 3 oil platforms and two logistical support boats, was installed off the Kenya coast, close to the town of Malindi.