The RM-81 Agena was an American rocket upper stage and satellite bus which was developed by Lockheed Corporation initially for the canceled WS-117L reconnaissance satellite program. Following the division of WS-117L into SAMOS and Corona for image intelligence,and MIDAS for early warning,the Agena was later used as an upper stage,and an integrated component,for several programs,including Corona reconnaissance satellites and the Agena Target Vehicle used to demonstrate rendezvous and docking during Project Gemini. It was used as an upper stage on the Atlas,Thor,Thorad and Titan IIIB rockets,and considered for others including the Space Shuttle and Atlas V. A total of 365 Agena rockets were launched between February 28,1959 and February 1987. Only 33 Agenas carried NASA payloads and the vast majority were for DoD programs.
The Delta rocket family was a versatile range of American rocket-powered expendable launch systems that provided space launch capability in the United States from 1960 to 2024. Japan also launched license-built derivatives from 1975 to 1992. More than 300 Delta rockets were launched with a 95% success rate. The series was phased out in favor of the Vulcan Centaur,with the Delta IV Heavy rocket's last launch occurring on April 9,2024.
Titan IV was a family of heavy-lift space launch vehicles developed by Martin Marietta and operated by the United States Air Force from 1989 to 2005. Launches were conducted from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station,Florida and Vandenberg Air Force Base,California.
Titan IIIB was the collective name for a number of derivatives of the Titan II ICBM and Titan III launch vehicle,modified by the addition of an Agena upper stage. It consisted of four separate rockets. The Titan 23B was a basic Titan II with an Agena upper stage,and the Titan 24B was the same concept,but using the slightly enlarged Titan IIIM rocket as the base. The Titan 33B was a Titan 23B with the Agena enclosed in an enlarged fairing,in order to allow larger payloads to be launched. The final member of the Titan IIIB family was the Titan 34B which was a Titan 24B with the larger fairing used on the Titan 33B.
The Titan IIIC was an expendable launch system used by the United States Air Force from 1965 until 1982. It was the first Titan booster to feature large solid rocket motors and was planned to be used as a launcher for the Dyna-Soar,though the spaceplane was cancelled before it could fly. The majority of the launcher's payloads were DoD satellites,for military communications and early warning,though one flight (ATS-6) was performed by NASA. The Titan IIIC was launched exclusively from Cape Canaveral while its sibling,the Titan IIID,was launched only from Vandenberg AFB.
The Thor-Able was an American expendable launch system and sounding rocket used for a series of re-entry vehicle tests and satellite launches between 1958 and 1960.
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.
Thor was a US space launch vehicle derived from the PGM-17 Thor intermediate-range ballistic missile. The Thor rocket was the first member of the Delta rocket family of space launch vehicles. The last launch of a direct derivative of the Thor missile occurred in 2018 as the first stage of the final Delta II.
The Proton-M,(Протон-М) GRAU index 8K82M or 8K82KM,is an expendable Russian heavy-lift launch vehicle derived from the Soviet-developed Proton. It is built by Khrunichev,and launched from sites 81 and 200 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Commercial launches are marketed by International Launch Services (ILS),and generally use Site 200/39. The first Proton-M launch occurred on 7 April 2001.
The Thor-Burner was an American expendable launch system,a member of the Thor rocket family. It consisted of a Thor missile,with one or two Burner upper stages. It was used between 1965 and 1976 to orbit a number of satellites,most commonly Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) weather satellites. Twenty-four were launched,of which two failed. It weighed 51,810 kg and was 24 metres tall.
Juno II was an American space launch vehicle used during the late 1950s and early 1960s. It was derived from the Jupiter missile,which was used as the first stage.
The Delta L,Thor-Delta L,or Thrust-Augmented Long Tank Thor-Delta was a US expendable launch system used to launch the Pioneer E and TETR satellites in 1969 (failed) and HEOS satellite in 1972. It was a member of the Delta family of rockets.
The Delta 3000 series was an American expendable launch system which was used to conduct 38 orbital launches between 1975 and 1989. It was a member of the Delta family of rockets. Several variants existed,which were differentiated by a four digit numerical code.
Simorgh,also called Safir-2,is an Iranian expendable launch vehicle under development. It is the successor of the Safir,Iran's first space launch vehicle. Its mission is to carry heavier satellites into higher orbit than Safir.
Transit 3B was an American satellite which was launched in 1961 and operated by the United States Navy. It was a replacement for Transit 3A,which was lost in a launch failure the previous year. It carried instruments to demonstrate navigation and timing systems,and study geodesy to support the development of the Transit satellite navigation system.
LOFTI-1 was an American satellite which was launched in 1961 and operated by the United States Navy and Naval Research Laboratory. It was used to conduct research into the propagation of very low frequency radio signals in the ionosphere,and to investigate if these signals could be received by submarines. A 136.17 MHz transmitter was used for this investigation.
Discoverer 9,also known as Corona 9006,was an American optical reconnaissance satellite launched on 4 Feb 1960 at 18:51:45 GMT,the sixth of ten operational flights of the Corona KH-1 spy satellite series,and the first of them to be equipped with a new,vacuum-proof,polyester-based film. The satellite was not successfully orbited.
The Able rocket stage was a rocket stage manufactured in the United States by Aerojet as the second of three stages of the Vanguard rocket used in the Vanguard project from 1957 to 1959. The rocket engine used nitric acid and UDMH as rocket propellants. The Able rocket stage was discontinued in 1960. The improved Ablestar version was used as the upper stage of the Thor-Ablestar two stage launcher. The Ablestar second stage was an enlarged version of the Able rocket stage,which gave the Thor-Ablestar a greater payload capacity compared to the earlier Thor-Able. It also incorporated restart capabilities,allowing a multiple-burn trajectory to be flown,further increasing payload,or allowing the rocket to reach different orbits. It was the first rocket to be developed with such a capability and development of the stage took a mere eight months.
SOLRAD 4 was a solar X-rays,ultraviolet,and electronic surveillance satellite. Developed by the United States Navy's United States Naval Research Laboratory (USNRL),it was the fourth in both the SOLRAD and the GRAB programs.
