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The Altair was a
The Altair was a solid-fuel rocket
A solid-propellant rocket or solid rocket is a rocket with a rocket engine that uses Rocket propellant#Solid chemical propellants, solid propellants (fuel/oxidizer). The earliest rockets were solid-fuel rockets powered by gunpowder. The incepti ...
with a fiberglass
Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) is a common type of fibre-reinforced plastic, fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened i ...
casing, initially developed for use as the third stage
''Third Stage'' is the third studio album by the American rock band Boston, released on September 24, 1986, on MCA Records, as the band's first album on the label. It was recorded at Boston co-founder Tom Scholz's Hideaway Studio over a long, s ...
of Vanguard rocket
The Vanguard rocket PDF of an optical copy. was intended to be the first launch vehicle the United States would use to place a satellite into orbit. Instead, the Sputnik crisis caused by the surprise launch of Sputnik 1 led the U.S., after the f ...
s in 1959. It was manufactured by Allegany Ballistics Laboratory
Allegany Ballistics Laboratory (ABL) located in Rocket Center, West Virginia, is a diverse factory, industrial complex employing some 1,000 people across . The facility is a member of the Federal Laboratory Consortium and is operated by Northr ...
(ABL) as the X-248. It was also sometimes called the Burner 1.
Altair
The X-248 was one of two third-stage designs used duringProject Vanguard
Project Vanguard was a program managed by the United States Navy Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), which intended to launch the first Satellite, artificial satellite into low Earth orbit using a Vanguard (rocket), Vanguard rocket as the launch ...
. Early launches used a stage developed by the Grand Central Rocket Company, but the last used the X-248 which enabled the Vanguard to launch more massive payload.
The X-248 was used as the second stage of some early Thor
Thor (from ) is a prominent list of thunder gods, god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding æsir, god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology, sacred g ...
flights. These vehicles were designated "Thor-Burner
The Thor-Burner was an American expendable launch system, a member of the Thor rocket family. It consisted of a Thor missile, with one or two Burner upper stages. It was used between 1965 and 1976 to orbit a number of satellites, most commonly ...
".
Altairs were used as the third stage of early Delta rocket
The Delta rocket family was a versatile range of American rocket-powered expendable launch systems that provided space launch capability in the United States from 1960 to 2024. Japan also launched license-built derivatives (N-I (rocket), N-I, N ...
s.
The fourth stage of the Scout-X rocket used the "Altair-1A" stage, powered by a X-248A engine.
Altair 2
The Altair 2 (X-258)Thiokol
Thiokol was an American corporation concerned initially with rubber and related chemicals, and later with rocket and missile propulsion systems. Its name is a portmanteau of the Greek words for sulfur () and glue (), an allusion to the company ...
( Star 25, TE-M-184-3) solid rocket engine first flew in 1963 and was the kick stage motor for Delta D
The Delta D, Thrust Augmented Delta or Thor-Delta D was an American expendable launch system used to launch two communications satellites in 1964 and 1965. It was derived from the Delta C, and was a member of the Delta (rocket family), Delta fami ...
, Scout A
The Scout family of rockets were American launch vehicles designed to place small satellites into orbit around the Earth. The Scout multistage rocket was the first orbital launch vehicle to be entirely composed of solid fuel stages. It was also t ...
, Scout X-4, and Atlas-D OV1 as part of the Orbiting Vehicle
Orbiting Vehicle or OV, originally designated SATAR (SATellite - Atmospheric Research), comprised five different series of standardized American satellites operated by the US Air Force, launched between 1965 and 1971. Forty seven satellites w ...
satellites. It was retired in 1973.
Altair 3
The Altair 3 (FW-4S) solid rocket engine first flew in 1968 and was used on the Atlas-E/F OV1 as part of the OV1 upper stage. It was also used as the second stage of theASM-135 ASAT
The ASM-135 ASAT is an air-launched anti-satellite multistage missile that was developed by Ling-Temco-Vought's LTV Aerospace division. The ASM-135 was carried exclusively by United States Air Force (USAF) F-15 Eagle fighter aircraft. The pro ...
anti-satellite missile. It as proposed as the fourth stage for Advanced Scout. The FW-4S motor is similar to Thiokol Star 20
Fabryka Samochodów Ciężarowych "Star" (FSC Star), also known simply as Star, was a Polish truck manufacturer. The name comes from the City of Starachowice, where the factory is located. Their first vehicle was the ''Star 20'' in 1948. The mos ...
(TE-M-640), and both are designated by NASA as Altair IIIA.
See also
*Algol (rocket stage)
The Algol family of solid-fuel rocket Multistage rocket, stages and solid rocket booster, boosters is built by Aerojet (now Aerojet Rocketdyne) and used on a variety of launch vehicles. It was developed by Aerojet from the earlier Jupiter Senior ...
* Castor (rocket stage)
Castor is a family of solid-fuel rocket stages and boosters built by Thiokol (now Northrop Grumman) and used on a variety of launch vehicles. They were initially developed as the second-stage motor of the Scout rocket. The design was based on t ...
References
Rocket stages Solid-fuel rockets {{Rocket-stub