Atlas I & II Booster Q&A

[msat]

Despite the long operational lifetime and similarities between the Atlas I and II rockets, it seems like a lot of information is hard to come by regarding those rocket's booster system.

One thing in particular that I've wondered about in the past and had renewed curiosity about is the propellant coupling used for the MA-x booster system. Does anyone know how this works?

[msat]

Thanks! I suspected that if anyone had the answer it would be you! Also, thanks for the link.

So as it turns out, they were right there out in the open (literally) the whole time.

Further searching led me to a thread on this forum: https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=30189.0

Per the diagram in post #6, item 21 is a butterfly valve. I wonder if this was controlled by the electronics, or if was a purely mechanical affair where the insertion and removal of the booster-side coupling dictated the valve position.

The whole booster separation system is really slick.

[rocketguy101]

there are some nice diagrams over here http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=30189.0

edit 1: hah! msat beat me to it!

edit 2:  there are a lot of interesting photos and youtube links in this thread url= http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=26915.0] http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=26915.0[/url]

[nicp]

Was any consideration ever given to reuse of an Atlas I or II booster section?
Were any (presumably unusable) used booster sections fished out of the ocean for inspection?

[Proponent]

There was a proposal for a winged fly-back Atlas.