Scout (rocket family)

Scout
The first launch of Scout B, in 1965.
FunctionOrbital launch vehicle
ManufacturerLTV Aerospace Corporation[1]
Country of originUnited States
Launch history
StatusRetired
[edit on Wikidata]

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. It was also the only vehicle of that type until the successful launch of the Japanese Lambda 4S in 1970.

The original Scout (a backronym for Solid Controlled Orbital Utility Test system) 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."[2]

The first successful orbital launch of a Scout, on February 16, 1961, delivered Explorer 9, a 7 kilograms (15 lb) satellite used for atmospheric density studies, into orbit.[3] 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 (MSTI-2) military spacecraft with a mass of 163 kilograms (359 lb). MSTI-2 successfully acquired and tracked a LGM-30 Minuteman missile.[4][5][6]

The standard Scout launch vehicle was a solid propellant, four-stage booster system, approximately 23 meters (75 ft) in length with a launch weight of 21,499 kilograms (47,397 lb).[7]

  1. ^ "Scout". www.astronautix.com. Archived from the original on December 27, 2016. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  2. ^ "Scout Launch Vehicle Program". NASA. Archived from the original on 2016-11-10. Retrieved 2005-08-07.
  3. ^ "Scout". The Satellite Encyclopedia.
  4. ^ "Scout G". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Archived from the original on May 2, 2002.
  5. ^ "Miniature Sensor Technology Integration MSTI series". NASA. Retrieved 6 January 2016.
  6. ^ "MSTI 2". Skyrocket. Retrieved 6 January 2016.
  7. ^ "NASA'S SCOUT LAUNCH VEHICLE". NASA GSFC. Archived from the original on 2008-05-10.