Quote from: arachnitect on 04/07/2015 02:19 amQuote from: edkyle99 on 04/07/2015 01:13 amHere's my stab at Atlas SLV-3 Agena D, the classic American rocket. Some tweaking likely needed on this one yet. - Ed KyleI was looking at Agena specs the other day and was surprised at the mass fraction. To me it always looked like it was built in a barn, but I guess it was pretty sophisticated.Are there any surviving Agena D stages?I've seen two at Cape Canaveral Air Force Museum. There's one or two at the USAF museum in Dayton, and one or two at the Smithsonian. These are in addition to whatever Agena stages might actually be stacked in rocket gardens.Yes. Agena was more Lockheed Skunk Works magic. It took a lot of money, and a lot of early teething problems, but Agena to this day remains the most-flown U.S. upper stage (launched atop Thor, Atlas, and Titan). Its importance is not widely understood due to the secrecy of most of its missions. - Ed Kyle
Quote from: edkyle99 on 04/07/2015 01:13 amHere's my stab at Atlas SLV-3 Agena D, the classic American rocket. Some tweaking likely needed on this one yet. - Ed KyleI was looking at Agena specs the other day and was surprised at the mass fraction. To me it always looked like it was built in a barn, but I guess it was pretty sophisticated.Are there any surviving Agena D stages?
Here's my stab at Atlas SLV-3 Agena D, the classic American rocket. Some tweaking likely needed on this one yet. - Ed Kyle
Quote from: edkyle99 on 04/07/2015 03:15 amQuote from: arachnitect on 04/07/2015 02:19 amQuote from: edkyle99 on 04/07/2015 01:13 amHere's my stab at Atlas SLV-3 Agena D, the classic American rocket. Some tweaking likely needed on this one yet. - Ed KyleI was looking at Agena specs the other day and was surprised at the mass fraction. To me it always looked like it was built in a barn, but I guess it was pretty sophisticated.Are there any surviving Agena D stages?I've seen two at Cape Canaveral Air Force Museum. There's one or two at the USAF museum in Dayton, and one or two at the Smithsonian. These are in addition to whatever Agena stages might actually be stacked in rocket gardens.Yes. Agena was more Lockheed Skunk Works magic. It took a lot of money, and a lot of early teething problems, but Agena to this day remains the most-flown U.S. upper stage (launched atop Thor, Atlas, and Titan). Its importance is not widely understood due to the secrecy of most of its missions. - Ed KyleI think USSRC in Huntsville has a full GATV in storage, but it might be missing the Agena (it's been a few year since I saw it).
One of them, AC-5, ended in the biggest on-pad explosion yet seen in Florida
Quote from: Jim Davis on 04/11/2015 02:52 amI'm not sure that's particularly relevant. The large majority of Atlas Agena payloads were integrated with the Agena but no one disagrees with pairing Atlas with Agena.Despite the majority that were, there were many (more than 40) that weren't and that is the reason for the pairing. There were no Star-37 missions that were not integral to the spacecraft.
I'm not sure that's particularly relevant. The large majority of Atlas Agena payloads were integrated with the Agena but no one disagrees with pairing Atlas with Agena.
I do disagree (in some way). For the Atlas-E/F versions, it is many cases difficult to decide, if the upper stage was part of the payload: On the DMSP/NOAA satellites, the Star motor was clearly integrated with the payload. On the other hand, the PTS, OIS, SGS-1 and SGS-2 upper stages (all some kind of Star motors) were clearly not integrated with the payload - although formally they were handled as part of the payload.In my list, i have decided to list the Atlas-E/Fs with the individual upper stages as seperate versions, as these upperstage-payload combinations required different adaptors and fairings to be fitted with the Atlas stage.http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_lau/atlas_sd.htm
SCORE (Signal Communications by Orbiting Relay Equipment) was famously launched by Atlas 10B from Cape Canaveral LC 11 on December 18, 1958. The entire Atlas sustainer stage boosted itself to a 159 x 1,187 km x 32.29 deg orbit. The usual 1.5-ish tonne RV was replaced by a lightweight nose fairing. The sustainer and 68 kg of additional SCORE hardware weighed 3,969 kg. It was the first orbital Atlas, and only the fifth U.S. orbital success. It was also the very first U.S. Air Force orbital success. 10B got to orbit in a hurry, and endured some high-g forces before SECO to get there. - Ed Kyle
And it played, AIUI, the very first human voice (from a recording) ever sent from an American satellite to the ground.It was a Christmas message to the world from President Eisenhower. The recording was launched aboard the spacecraft and played back from there, so in this case it wasn't a relay, it was a voice transmission originating from orbit.
I think I like the illustration of booster separating from the sustainer and rocket. That's an image you almost never see. Have any pictures of that ever been published?
Quote from: kevin-rf on 04/17/2015 12:22 pmI think I like the illustration of booster separating from the sustainer and rocket. That's an image you almost never see. Have any pictures of that ever been published?There were a couple of engineering camera shots of booster package jettison and of the sustainer stage in space. The stage was seen and possibly photographed by Mercury astronauts as well. Here are a couple of amazing images of the Atlas 71D sustainer stage in flight, taken either from an engineering camera pod or from the just-separated RV itself. These are from SDASM. - Ed Kyle
Ed, May I ask how Mariner 5 fit into all this. It was built as a backup for Mariner 3 and 4, was a backup vehicle also procured and them re-purposed for either Gambit or Vela?