Little Joe (rocket)
The Little Joe rockets are suborbital rockets that were used to test the rescue systems of the Mercury and Apollo spacecraft .
The Little Joe rockets, driven by solid rocket motors, had a different combination of rocket motors, which were mounted in the actual rocket body, depending on the desired flight profile.
Little Joe I.
The Little Joe I missile was equipped with various combinations of four Recruit launch support missiles and either two or four Castor or Pollux . A total of seven flights (and one failed take-off attempt) took place from the Wallops Flight Facility . At a preprogrammed point in the trajectory, the Mercury spacecraft was severed and pulled away from the Little Joe by its rescue missile. The trajectory was such that the separated Mercury landing capsules could fall on parachutes in the sea. Originally it was planned in the Mercury program that all astronauts should conduct a training flight on a Little Joe rocket before their actual space flights, but this was deleted from the planning to speed up the space program.
Little Joe I start list
| mission | Rocket motors | begin | Duration | crew | comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mercury-Little-Joe 1 | 4 Pollux, 4 Recruit | August 21, 1959 | 20 s | unmanned | suborbital flight, reserve system misfire before takeoff |
| Mercury-Little-Joe 6 | 4 Pollux, 4 Recruit | 4th October 1959 | 5 min | unmanned | suborbital flight |
| Mercury-Little-Joe 1A | 2 Pollux, 4 Recruit | 4th November 1959 | 8 min | unmanned | suborbital flight, false start |
| Mercury-Little-Joe 2 | 4 Castor, 4 Recruit | 4th December 1959 | 11 min | Rhesus monkey Sam | suborbital flight |
| Mercury-Little-Joe 1B | 2 Pollux, 4 Recruit | January 21, 1960 | 8 min | Rhesus monkey Miss Sam | suborbital flight |
| Mercury-Little-Joe 5 | 2 Pollux, 4 Recruit | November 8, 1960 | 2 min | unmanned | suborbital flight, partially successful |
| Mercury-Little-Joe 5A | 4 Castor, 4 Recruit | March 18, 1961 | 23 min | unmanned | suborbital flight |
| Mercury-Little-Joe 5B | 4 Castor, 4 Recruit | April 28, 1961 | 5 min | unmanned | suborbital flight, partially successful |
Little Joe II
In the Little Joe II version, enlarged for the Apollo program, the Recruit rocket was also used again . However, instead of the Castor or Pollux motors, the main engines used were larger Algol 1D rocket motors, which were borrowed from the Scout rocket. In contrast to the first Little Joe program, the launch site was relocated to the White Sands Missile Range so that the tested landing capsules had to land on firm ground.
Another use for the flight test of the lunar module of the Apollo program was originally considered, but this was discarded due to time constraints.
| configuration | Number of recruit missiles | Number of Algol 1D ground-ignited missiles |
Number of Algol 1D missiles ignited in flight |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6-1-0 | 6th | 1 | 0 |
| 4-2-0 | 4th | 2 | 0 |
| 5-2-2 | 5 | 2 | 2 |
| 0-3-3 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
Little Joe II start list
| mission | configuration | begin | Duration | crew | comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| QTV | 6-1-0 | August 28, 1963 | ? s | unmanned | suborbital test flight of the Little Joe II rocket without actual payload |
| A-001 | 6-1-0 | May 13, 1964 | ? s | unmanned | suborbital flight with Apollo dummy |
| A-002 | 4-2-0 | December 8, 1964 | ? s | unmanned | suborbital flight with Apollo dummy |
| A-003 | 0-3-3 | May 19, 1965 | ? s | unmanned | suborbital flight with Apollo dummy |
| A-004 | 5-2-2 | 20th January 1966 | ? s | unmanned | suborbital flight with a complete Apollo spacecraft |
