Scout X-2M was an American expendable launch system which was flown three times between May 1962 and April 1963. It was a four-stage rocket, based on the earlier

Scout X-2 Scout X-2 was an American expendable launch system and sounding rocket which was flown twice in 1962. It was a four-stage rocket, based on the earlier Scout X-1, uprated first and third stages. It was a member of the Scout family of rockets. The ...

, but with an MG-18 upper stage instead of the Altair used on the X-2. It was a member 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, sect ...

family of rockets. The Scout X-2 was an all-solid rocket, with an

Algol 1D ALGOL (; short for "Algorithmic Language") is a family of imperative computer programming languages originally developed in 1958. ALGOL heavily influenced many other languages and was the standard method for algorithm description used by th ...

first stage, a

Castor 1A The Castor 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 the ...

second stage, an Antares 2A third stage, and an MG-18 fourth stage. It was launched from Launch Complex D at Point Arguello, and was used for the launch of P-35 weather satellites. The first Scout X-2M was launched 24 May 1962, carrying

P35-1 Syntaxin-1A is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''STX1A'' gene. Function Synaptic vesicles store neurotransmitters that are released during calcium-regulated exocytosis. The specificity of neurotransmitter release requires the localiz ...

, but failed to reach orbit. The second flight, launched at 11:44 GMT on 23 August, was the only successful launch to be made by an X-2M, placing P35-2 into

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 m ...

. The final launch, with P35-4 occurred on 26 April 1963, and like the first flight, it failed to reach orbit.

References

* * * * 1962 in spaceflight 1963 in spaceflight X-2 {{rocket-stub