| From: US4RMC::"[email protected]" "Peter Yee" 5-MAY-1994 15:42:25.09
To: [email protected]
CC:
Subj: Launch Advisory -- NASA's last Scout launch set for May 6
[Release 53-94/KSC] (Forwarded)
Bruce Buckingham
407/867-2468 May 4, 1994
Jan Cooksey
805/734-8232 (ext. 5-3820)
KSC Release No. 53 - 94
LAUNCH ADVISORY -- NASA's LAST SCOUT LAUNCH SET FOR MAY 6
NASA has rescheduled the launch of a Solid Controlled
Orbital Utility Test (Scout) vehicle from Space Complex 5 at
Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., for May 6, 1994. The launch
window opens at 7:45 p.m. PDT and extends for 10 minutes. Scout
will carry a Department of Defense payload called Miniature
Seeker Technology Integration (MSTI-2) into low Earth orbit.
The launch had been earlier delayed due to contamination
found on electrical relays on the MSTI-3 payload, which is being
prepared for launch at a later date. Since identical relays are
on MSTI-2, the decision was made to stand down while the relays
on MSTI-2 were replaced. MSTI-2 is the second in a series of
satellites that will support the development of advanced theater
missile defenses for the armed forces.
This launch is the last for the Scout vehicle, a dependable
four-stage launch system that has been in service since 1960.
This launch will be the 118th for the Scout program in its 34
year career.
Scout will place the 360-pound MSTI-2 spacecraft into a
248.5 mile-high circular orbit at an inclination of 97.13 degrees.
The launch will be carried live on NASA Select television
which is carried on Spacenet 2, transponder 5, channel 9, and
located at 69 degrees West longitude, with a frequency of 3880
MHz. Commentary will begin about 30 minutes prior to the scheduled
liftoff time and continue through spacecraft separation.
|
| From: US4RMC::"[email protected]" "Peter Yee" 6-MAY-1994 19:52:17.97
To: [email protected]
CC:
Subj: SCOUT launch vehicle to retire after 34 years of service
[Release 94-72] (Forwarded)
Don Savage May 6, 1994
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
(Phone: 202/358-1547)
Fred A. Brown
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
(Phone: 301/286-7277)
Keith Henry
Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va.
(Phone: 804/864-6124)
RELEASE: 94-72
SCOUT LAUNCH VEHICLE TO RETIRE AFTER 34 YEARS OF SERVICE
NASA has scheduled the 118th and final flight of the
Solid Controlled Orbital Utility Test (SCOUT) launch vehicle for
Friday, May 6, from the Western Test Range, Vandenberg Air Force Base,
Lompoc, Calif. The 10-minute launch window opens at 10:45 p.m. EDT.
SCOUT has been a reliable rocket for nearly 34 years, flying
its first mission on July 1, 1960, and becoming one of NASA's most
successful launch vehicles. SCOUT's reliability for the last 26 years
has been 98.3 percent and, since 1976, its launch success rate has been
100 percent. According to project officials, this reliability can be
traced to its use of standardized launch and manufacturing procedures
and the incorporation of off-the-shelf technology.
Although it is the smallest NASA launch vehicle capable of
orbiting satellites, SCOUT has been a real workhorse for the space
agency. Due to its extensive contributions to the space program and
the limited publicity it has received, SCOUT has been called, "the
unsung hero of space."
The SCOUT program was managed from 1958 through Dec. 1990
by NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va. Program management was
transferred to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., in
Jan. 1991.
The last SCOUT will launch a Miniature Sensor Technology
Integration (MSTI) satellite. The satellite, designated MSTI-2, will
conduct tracking and Earth-observation experiments. Designed and
built by Phillips Laboratory at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., the
MSTI program is in support of the Ballistic Missile Defense
Organization's Theater Missile Defense Directive. A SCOUT launch
vehicle launched the first MSTI satellite in Nov. 1992.
This launch vehicle had its beginnings as early as 1957. The
U. S. needed a relatively inexpensive, quickly produced rocket to
launch small research experiments, and Langley engineers were asked to
design it. Their goal was to provide a launch vehicle capable of
performing a variety of probe, re-entry and orbital missions with
minimum preparation time.
The conception was complete in 1958, and Chance Vought Aircraft
(now Loral Vought Systems) was placed under contract in March 1959 to
build SCOUT vehicles. This was the beginning of a government/contractor
relationship which has lasted more than 35 years.
SCOUT was America's first solid-fuel launch vehicle capable
of orbiting a satellite. The standard SCOUT launch vehicle is a
solid-propellant, four-stage booster system, approximately 75 feet (23
meters) long with a launch weight of 47,398 pounds (21,500 kilograms).
Unlike most of NASA's larger expendable rockets, the SCOUT
is assembled and the payload is integrated and checked-out in the
horizontal position prior to launch. SCOUT's first-stage motor was
based on an earlier version of the Navy's Polaris missile motor. The
second-stage motor was developed from the Army's Sergeant surface-to-
surface missile, and the third- and fourth-stage motors were adapted
by Langley from the Navy's Vanguard missile.
The first SCOUT was launched from Goddard's Wallops Flight
Facility, Wallops Island, Va., on July 1, 1960. The rocket carried a
193-pound (88-kilogram) payload as a probe test. On February 16, 1961,
Scout became the first solid-fuel rocket to place a payload into orbit.
The vehicle carried a 96-pound (44- kilogram) NASA atmospheric physics
payload into orbit without incident.
Two launch sites were added in subsequent years. One, at the
Western Test Range at Vandenberg Air Force Base, was added in 1962.
Another was built on Italy's unique sea-based San Marco platform off
the east coast of Kenya, Africa, the site of nine successful equatorial
missions since 1967.
SCOUT capability grew dramatically over the years. Originally
able to place a 131-pound (59-kilogram) payload in a nominal 345-mile
(552-kilometer) circular orbit, SCOUT performance was improved,
increasing its capability to put a 458- pound (208-kilogram) payload
into the same orbit. The heaviest satellite ever placed in orbit by
SCOUT was an Italian payload that weighed more than 600 pounds (270
kilograms) and was launched out of Africa. SCOUT increased its load-
carrying capability 350 percent over that of the original vehicle with
little increase in the size of its stages.
The SCOUT program has made possible important contributions
to knowledge of space, not only for the U. S. but also for a number of
foreign nations, including Italy, Great Britain, Germany, France, the
Netherlands and the multi- national European Space Agency. These
contributions have been in navigation, astronomy, geodesy, meteoroid
environment, re-entry materials, biology, spacecraft technology and
applications.
To commemorate SCOUT's contributions to the American space
program, there is a SCOUT rocket on display in the Smithsonian
Institution's National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C.
|
| From "Jonathon's Space Report". I'm sure glad he does these reports. He seems
to get a lot of the stuff that is not too well publicized.
The final launch of the Scout rocket took place at 0247 UTC on May 9.
It placed the MSTI-2 (Miniature Seeker Technology Integration) satellite
in orbit for the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization. The orbit is
360 x 461 km x 96.8 deg. Vehicle S218C was a Scout G-1 variant,
consisting of an Algol 3A first stage, a Castor 2 second stage, an
Antares 3 third stage, and a Thiokol Star 20 fourth stage. The launch
took place from Space Launch Complex 5 at Vandenberg Air Force Base,
which was originally Launch Complex D of Point Arguello Naval Missile
Facility when it saw its first Scout launch in 1962. S218C was the 125th
launch of an Algol-based Scout (including six launches of the USAF Blue
Scout version); there were also 22 launches of a variant called Blue
Scout Junior which omitted the first stage. Scout's first test flight
was on Apr 18, 1960; the first successful orbital launch on 16 Feb 1961
(Explorer IX). Among Scout's famous payloads were: Transit VA-3, the
first successful gravity gradient stabilized satellite; San Marco 1,
Italy's first satellite; ESRO 2B, Europe's first joint satellite (ESRO
was ESA's predecessor); Azur, Germany's first satellite; the Dutch
satellite ANS; and Uhuru and Ariel 5, the early X-ray astronomy
satellites.
|