Scout (rocket)

Start of a Scout (NASA)

The Scout was a US launch vehicle that was also used by the European Space Research Organization (ESRO) . From 1958, NASA required a cheap and uncomplicated rocket to launch small scientific satellites . This was built by Ling-Temco-Vought Aerospace . The successful first launch was on October 4, 1960.

The Scout missile uses solid propulsion in all four stages . It was launched by Vandenberg and the Wallops Flight Facility to put small satellites into orbit . From 1967 to 1988 the Scout was launched from the Italian San Marco platform anchored off Kenya . The last launch of a scout rocket took place on May 9, 1994 from SLC 5 of Vandenberg AFB and launched the MSTI-2 satellite into space .

The simple basic structure and the low costs made the Scout the basis of its own developments in other countries, such as Italy, Argentina and India, even if some of these projects failed early due to funding.

construction

• The first stage Algol was prepared from a stage of development of Polaris - medium-range missile derived.
• The second stage Castor was out of the engine of military sergeant - short-range missile development.
• The third stage Antares comes from the development of the third stage of the Vanguard missile .
• The fourth stage Altair was also derived from the Vanguard .
• In some cases ( Scout C and Scout E ) a fifth level Alcyone was used.

Start list

→ See list of Scout rocket launches

Web links

Commons : Scout  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Scout in the Encyclopedia Astronautica (English)
• Bernd Leitenberger: The Scout launcher

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Globalsecurity.org: Scout (engl.) (Consulted on October 7, 2019)