The RM-90 Blue Scout II was an American
sounding rocket and
expendable launch system which was flown three times during 1961. It was used for two
HETS test flights, and the launch of the
Mercury-Scout 1 satellite for
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
. It was a member of the
Scout family of rockets.
The Blue Scout II was a military version of the
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
-operated
Scout X-1
Scout X-1 was an American expendable launch system and sounding rocket which was flown seven times between August 1960 and October 1961. Four orbital and three suborbital launches were made, with four of the launches resulting in failures.
The ...
.
Launches
All three launches occurred from
Launch Complex 18B at the
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) is an installation of the United States Space Force's Space Launch Delta 45, located on Cape Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida.
Headquartered at the nearby Patrick Space Force Base, the statio ...
, the same launch pad used for the
Blue Scout I.
The first two launches were successfully conducted on 3 March and 12 April 1961 respectively, using vehicles D-4 and D-5.
They both carried
HETS A2
Hets or HETS may refer to:
* Het peoples
* Heavy Equipment Transport System, a military logistics vehicle
* Helicopter External Transport System
* ''Torment'' (1944 film) (Swedish: ')
See also
* Het (disambiguation)
Het or HET may refer to:
...
plasma research experiments on
suborbital trajectories.
The third launch was conducted on 1 November, using vehicle D-8, with the
Mercury-Scout 1 satellite for
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
, which was intended to reach
low Earth orbit
A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never mor ...
. The launch failed after the rocket went out of control, and was destroyed by the
range safety officer
In the field of rocketry, range safety may be assured by a system which is intended to protect people and assets on both the rocket range and downrange in cases when a launch vehicle might endanger them. For a rocket deemed to be ''off course' ...
43 seconds after liftoff.
References
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{{Orbital launch systems
1961 in spaceflight
Blue Scout II