Scout X, also known as Cub Scout, was an American rocket which served as a prototype of the

Scout Scout may refer to: Youth movement *Scout (Scouting), a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement ** Scouts (The Scout Association), section for 10-14 year olds in the United Kingdom **Scouts BSA, secti ...

, which was launched on a single test flight in 1960. It was used to test the configuration that later Scout rockets would use as well as two of the

solid rocket motor A solid-propellant rocket or solid rocket is a rocket with a rocket engine that uses solid propellants (fuel/oxidizer). The earliest rockets were solid-fuel rockets powered by gunpowder; they were used in warfare by the Arabs, Chinese, Persia ...

s that would be used on them. The Scout X had the same configuration as the

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 ...

, which would be the first all-up version of the Scout. Unlike the X-1, which had four live stages, the Scout X only had live first and third stages, with

battleship A battleship is a large armour, armored warship with a main artillery battery, battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1 ...

mockups of the second and fourth. It was launched from Launch Area 3 at the

Wallops Flight Facility Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) is a rocket launch site on Wallops Island on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, United States, just east of the Delmarva Peninsula and approximately north-northeast of Norfolk. The facility is operated by the Godda ...

at 23:09 GMT on 18 April 1960. The launch failed when the rocket disintegrated during stage separation.

References

* * * 1960 in spaceflight X {{rocket-stub