The Burner, Burner II, and Burner IIA rocket

stages Stage, stages, or staging may refer to: Arts and media Acting * Stage (theatre), a space for the performance of theatrical productions * Theatre, a branch of the performing arts, often referred to as "the stage" * ''The Stage'', a weekly Brit ...

have been used as upper stages of

launch vehicle A launch vehicle is typically a rocket-powered vehicle designed to carry a payload (a crewed spacecraft or satellites) from Earth's surface or lower atmosphere to outer space. The most common form is the ballistic missile-shaped multistage ...

s such as the

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 ...

and

Delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta"), the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * Delta Air Lines, a major US carrier ...

since 1965.

Burner I

The Burner I stage (also called the Altair stage) was derived from the fourth stage of the Scout launch vehicle, and was powered by a

Star 37 The Star is a family of US solid-propellant rocket motors originally developed by Thiokol and used by many space propulsion and launch vehicle stages. They are used almost exclusively as an upper stage, often as an apogee kick motor. The number ...

solid rocket motor (Thiokol TE 364-1).http://www.globalsecurity.org/space/systems/thor.htm Global Security

Burner II

In September 1965, Air Force Space Systems Division announced the development of a new, low cost upper stage called Burner II, powered by Thiokol TE-M-364-2 engine. It was intended as the smallest maneuverable upper stage in the Air Force inventory. In June 1967, the first Thor/Burner II vehicle successfully launched a pair of satellites to orbit. In June 1971, the last of the Burner II missions was launched from Vandenberg by a Thor/Burner II launch vehicle and carried an SESP-1 space environmental satellite. In the mid-1970s Burner II was also studied for use as an upper stage in combination with the

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...

. NASA managers choose other solutions for missions where upper stages were required.

Burner IIA

In June 1969, the

Space and Missile Systems Organization Space Systems Command (SSC) is the United States Space Force's research and development, space development, Military acquisition, acquisition, space launch, launch, and Military logistics, logistics field command. It is headquartered at Los An ...

(SAMSO) began development of the Burner IIA configuration which would offer a tandem motor injection capability and almost twice the capability of Burner II. In addition to use on Delta family rockets, Burner II stages have been used on both

Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of world map, maps of Earth or of a continent or region of Earth. Advances in astronomy have also resulted in atlases of the celestial sphere or of other planets. Atlases have traditio ...

and

Titan Titan most often refers to: * Titan (moon), the largest moon of Saturn * Titans, a race of deities in Greek mythology Titan or Titans may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional entities Fictional locations * Titan in fiction, fictiona ...

rockets.

Atlas E/F The Atlas E/F (or SB-1A) was an American expendable launch system and sounding rocket built using parts of decommissioned SM-65 Atlas missiles. It was a member of the Atlas (rocket family), Atlas family of rockets. The first stage was built ...

vehicles were configured with a Burner II/IIA stage and launched in 1968 and 1972. The first launch failed with the second delivering a radiation research payload for the Space Test Program ( P72-1 Radsat) using Burner IIA.

References

Rocket stages 1967 in spaceflight 1971 in spaceflight {{rocketry-stub