Pegasus (rocket)

Pegasus missile on the ground

Pegasus XL launcher before takeoff

The American launch vehicle Pegasus was developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation , now Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems , and can bring a payload of around 450 kg into low Earth orbit .

The take-off is from an airplane. Initially, a Boeing B-52 was used for this; Since 1995, all launches have been made with the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar "Stargazer", which is now the last L-1011 still in use. When launched, the missile is horizontal and falls from the aircraft for 5 seconds before the first stage ignites. The rocket consists of three stages, all of which run on solid fuel. Another stage operated with hydrazine can optionally be added.

The first launch took place on April 5, 1990. A slightly more powerful version, which was first launched on June 27, 1994, is called the Pegasus XL . By 2019 there had been 44 Pegasus launches, 39 of which were successful.

technology

Pegasus-XL after releasing under the aircraft

The three Orion solid-state motors of the Pegasus were developed by Hercules Aerospace (later Alliant Techsystems , now Northrop Grumman ) specifically for this application. In addition, the wings (from Scaled Composites ), tail unit and payload fairing were redesigned.

• Weight: 18,500 kg (Pegasus), 23,130 kg (Pegasus XL)
• Length: 16.9 m (Pegasus), 17.6 m (Pegasus XL)
• Diameter: 1.27 m
• Span: 6.7 m
• Payload: 443 kg (1.18 m diameter, 2.13 m length)

Further developments and modifications

Further missiles were developed based on the Pegasus:

• The HXLV missile is a single-stage variant of the Pegasus that was used to launch the X-43A hypersonic missile as part of the Hyper-X program . The missile was retrofitted with special control surfaces and stabilizers.
• The Taurus-Lite was a prototype for the development of a launch vehicle for missile defense . It was de facto a ground-launched Pegasus XL rocket without wings.
• The OBV missile is the ready-to-use launch vehicle for missile defense . It corresponds to a silo-launched version of the Taurus-Lite with modified payload fairing.

Other rocket models that combine components of the Pegasus rocket with other rocket stages are:

• The Taurus rocket, with a first stage of a wingless Pegasus Peacekeeper - ICBM connects.
• The Minotaur-1 missile, which combines the second and third stages of the Pegasus with the first and second stages of the Minuteman II intercontinental ballistic missile.

• 

  HXLV

• 

  Taurus-Lite

• 

  OBV

• 

  Pegasus after igniting the engines

Start list

→ See list of Pegasus rocket launches .

Web links

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

• The Pegasus launcher , bernd-leitenberger.de
• Pegasus at Northrop Grumman (English)
• Pegasus in the Encyclopedia Astronautica (English)
• Pegasus X-47A at Scaled Composites (English)