What was the first rocket that really had no connection to the war field?
Funny thing about the Vanguard Able second stage. It was powered by the AJ-10. The same engine that powered the Titan's Transtage, the Apollo Service Module, The Able upper stage became the Thor/Delta upper stage, the Shuttle OMS engines, and I believe was chosen for NASA's Orion Capsule...
Now look at the german Wasserfall rocket. It was designed as an anti aircraft missile after the A-4 (V-2) had been designed. The Soviet adapted the design into what became known as the SCUD. In the US, the engine actually was redesigned and became the engine for the Viking rocket, then Vanguard's first stage.
Simple example, it was lesson's learned from the A-4 engine lead to the XLR83-NA-1 rocket engines that boosted the Navaho missile to speed. It was from these engines that the engines that powered the Atlas ICBM and Thor IRBM were derived. Thor become Delta, then Delta II. Atlas had a very long life as a satellite launcher, with the final "true" version being the Atlas III.
Oops, forgot Ariane...
Ariane was the follow-on to the Europa which used a British Blue Streak MRBM first stage. Military technology did influence the design. Thought Ariane 1 was one of the first to be designed from the ground up for launching to GTO.
Lambda came from a long line of sounding rockets that sprang from early "Pencil" rocket efforts that were to my knowledge always non-military, as required by treaty at the end of WW II. Here's a nice history. http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/e/japan_s_history/detail.shtml
Quote from: edkyle99 on 10/10/2013 02:02 amLambda came from a long line of sounding rockets that sprang from early "Pencil" rocket efforts that were to my knowledge always non-military, as required by treaty at the end of WW II. Here's a nice history. http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/e/japan_s_history/detail.shtmlI immediately thought "Japan" when non-ICBM heritage was mentioned. Every other space power has had a military solid rocket program and shared some tech with it.ISAS solid rocketry started from the other end - progressing through L-4S and M-V, arguably now with Epsilon the tech is sufficiently far along that it's directly applicable to an ICBM program..