Thor-Agena

A Thor Agena, ready to launch the Discoverer 37 (KH-3) spacecraft, 13 January 1962

See also: Thor (rocket family) and Thorad-Agena

Thor-Agena was a series of orbital launch vehicles. The rockets used Thor first stages and Agena second stages. They are thus cousins of the more famous Thor-Deltas, which founded the Delta rocket family. The first attempted launch of a Thor-Agena was in January 1959. The first successful launch was on February 28, 1959, launching Discoverer 1.

Uses

Among other uses, the clandestine Corona program used Thor-Agenas from June 1959 until January 1968 to launch US military reconnaissance satellites operated by the CIA. During this program, Thor-Agena launch vehicles were used in 145 launch attempts^[1] now known to have been part of satellite surveillance programs.

Also, Alouette 1, Canada's first satellite, was launched on a Thor-Agena-B.

Versions

Thor-Agena-A

16 launches between 21 Jan 1959 and 13 Sep 1960
The Discoverer 14 satellite used in the Corona spy satellite program was launched by a Thor-Agena-A. On 1960-08-19 usable photographic film from the satellite was recovered by a C-119 recovery aircraft. This was the first successful recovery of film from an orbiting satellite and the first mid-air recovery of an object returning from Earth orbit.^[2]

Thor-Agena-B

First successful launch: Nov 12, 1960 with Discoverer 17
Last launch: May 15, 1966 with Nimbus 2

Thor-Agena-D

First launch: Jun 28, 1962
Last launch: Jan 17, 1968

References

↑ Day, Dwayne, John Logsdon, and Brian Latell. Eye in the Sky: The Story of the Corona Spy Satellites. Smithsonian Institution Press (1998) pp 236-245
↑ "Discoverer 14 - NSSDC ID: 1960-010A". NASA.

Orbital launch systems

See also: Comparison of orbital launch systems

Current	Angara 1.2 A5 Antares 200 Ariane 5 Atlas V Delta II IV Dnepr Epsilon Falcon 9 v1.2 "Full Thrust" GSLV H-IIA H-IIB Kuaizhou Long March 2C 2D 2F 3A 3B 3C 4B 4C 5 6 7 11 LVM3 Minotaur I IV V C Pegasus Proton-M PSLV Rokot Safir Shavit Simorgh Soyuz U FG Soyuz-2 2.1a / STA 2.1b / STB 2-1v Strela Unha Vega Zenit 3SL 3SLB 3F

In development	Angara A5P A5V Antares 300 Ariane 6 Electron Falcon 9 "Block 5" Falcon Heavy Firefly α H3 ITS KZ-11 KZ-21 Long March 8 9 LauncherOne Mayak Naga-L Naro-2 New Glenn Orel Proton Light Medium RPS SLS Soyuz-5 SPARK SS-520 Tronador II Tsyklon-4 ULV VLM Vulcan

Retired	Antares 100 Ariane 1 2 3 4 ASLV Athena I II Atlas B D E/F G H I II III LV-3B SLV-3 Able Agena Centaur Black Arrow Conestoga Delta A B C D E G J L M N 0100 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 III Diamant Energia Europa Falcon 1 Falcon 9 v1.0 v1.1 Feng Bao 1 H-I H-II Juno I Juno II Kaituozhe-1 Kosmos 1 2I 3 3M Lambda 4S Long March 1 2A 2E 3 4A Mu 4S 3C 3H 3S 3SII V N1 N-I N-II Naro-1 Paektusan Pilot Proton UR-500 K R-7 Luna Molniya M L Polyot Soyuz original L M U2 Soyuz/Vostok Sputnik Voskhod Vostok L K 2 2M R-29 Shtil' Volna Saturn I IB V INT-21 Scout SLV Space Shuttle Sparta Start-1 Thor Able Ablestar Agena Burner Delta DSV-2U Thorad-Agena Titan II GLV IIIA IIIB IIIC IIID IIIE 34D 23G CT-3 IV Tsyklon 2 3 Vanguard Zenit 2 2M

United States orbital launch systems

Active	Antares Atlas V Delta II IV Heavy Falcon 9 Full Thrust Minotaur I IV V C Pegasus

In development	Athena Ic IIc III Falcon Heavy ITS New Glenn SLS SPARK Vulcan

Retired	Ares I V Athena I II Atlas B D E/F G H I II III LV-3B SLV-3 Able Agena Centaur Conestoga Delta A B C D E G J L M N 0100 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 III Falcon 1 Falcon 9 v1.0 v1.1 H-I* Juno I Juno II N-I* N-II* Pilot Saturn I IB V INT-21 Scout Shuttle Sparta Thor Able Ablestar Agena Burner Delta DSV-2U Thorad-Agena Titan II GLV IIIA IIIB IIIC IIID IIIE 34D 23G CT-3 IV Vanguard

* - Japanese projects using US rockets or stages

Thor and Delta rockets

Rockets

Thor

Delta

Alphabetical	Delta A Delta B Delta C Delta D Delta E Delta F Delta G Delta J Delta L Delta M Delta N

Numerical	Delta 0100 Delta 1000 Delta 2000 Delta 3000 Delta 4000 Delta 5000 Delta 6000 Delta 7000 Delta 8000 Delta 9000

Modern	Delta II Delta III Delta IV

Export

Launch sites

Canaveral	(S)LC-17 LC-18B SLC-37B

Johnston	LE-1 LE-2

Tanegashima	Osaki

Vandenberg	SLC-1 SLC-2 SLC-3 SLC-6 SLC-10

Bases	Bardney Breighton Caistor Carnaby Catfoss Coleby Grange Driffield Feltwell Folkingham Full Sutton Harrington Hemswell Ludford Magna Melton Mowbray Mepal North Luffenham North Pickenham Polebrook Shepherds Grove Tuddenham

Components

Boosters

First stages

Common Booster Core

Upper Stages

Delta	Delta-A Delta-D Delta-E Delta-F Delta-K Delta-P DCSS

Other	Able Ablestar Agena Altair Burner FW-4D IABS PAM-D Star UM-129

Engines

Manufacturers

Rocket	Douglas McDonnell Douglas Boeing United Launch Alliance

Engines	Aerojet Alliant Rocketdyne Thiokol TRW

Launches

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 6/28/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.