Thor-Agena

Thor-Agena was a series of orbital launch vehicles. The rockets used the Douglas-built Thor first stage and the Lockheed-built Agena second stages. They are thus cousins of the more-famous Thor-Deltas, which founded the Delta rocket family. The first attempted launch of a Thor-Agena was in January 1959. The first successful launch was on 28 February 1959, launching Discoverer 1. It was the first two-stage rocket to place a satellite into orbit.

A Thor-Agena launch vehicle, ready to launch the Discoverer 37 (KH-3) spacecraft, on 13 January 1962

Uses

Among other uses, the clandestine CORONA program used Thor-Agenas from June 1959 until January 1968 to launch United States military reconnaissance satellites operated by the CIA. During this program, Thor-Agena launch vehicles were used in 145 launch attempts [1] now known to have been part of satellite surveillance programs.

Also, Alouette 1, Canada's first satellite, was launched on a Thor-Agena-B.

Versions

Thor-Agena-A

16 launches between 21 January 1959 and 13 September 1960.
The Discoverer 14 satellite used in the CORONA spy satellite program was launched by a Thor-Agena-A. On 19 August 1960 usable photographic film from the satellite was recovered by a Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar recovery aircraft. This was the first successful recovery of film from an orbiting satellite and the first mid-air recovery of an object returning from Earth orbit.[2]

Thor-Agena-B

First successful launch: 12 November 1960 with Discoverer 17.
Last launch: 15 May 1966 with Nimbus 2.

Thor-Agena-D

First launch: 28 June 1962.
Last launch: 17 January 1968.

References

Day, Dwayne; Logsdon, John; Latell, Brian (1998). Eye in the Sky: The Story of the Corona Spy Satellites. Smithsonian Institution Press. pp. 236–245. OCLC 36783934.
"Discoverer-14 1960-010A". NASA. 14 May 2020. Retrieved 6 January 2021. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[1] Day, Dwayne; Logsdon, John; Latell, Brian (1998). Eye in the Sky: The Story of the Corona Spy Satellites. Smithsonian Institution Press. pp. 236–245. OCLC 36783934.

[nssdc-2] "Discoverer-14 1960-010A". NASA. 14 May 2020. Retrieved 6 January 2021. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

Orbital launch systems
List of orbital launch systems Comparison of orbital launch systems
Current	Angara A5 Antares 230+ Ariane 5 Atlas V Ceres-1 Delta IV Heavy Electron Epsilon Falcon 9 Block 5 Falcon Heavy GSLV Mk II Mk III H-IIA Hyperbola-1 Jielong 1 Kuaizhou 1 1A 11^† Kaituozhe 2 LauncherOne Long March 2C 2D 2F 3A 3B/E 3C 4B 4C 5 5B 6 7 7A^† 8 11 Minotaur I IV V C OS-M1^† Pegasus XL Proton-M PSLV Qased Rocket 3^† Safir Shavit Simorgh^† Soyuz-2 2.1a / STA 2.1b / STB 2-1v Unha Vega Zenit 3SL 3SLB 3F Zhuque-1^†
In development	Amur Angara 1.2 Ariane 6 Bloostar Cyclone-4M Eris Firefly Alpha Beta H3 Hyperbola-2 Irtysh Kuaizhou 21 31 Long March 921 rocket 9 Miura 5 New Glenn New Line 1 Nuri OS-M2 OS-M4 Orbex Prime SLS Soyuz-7 SSLV Starship Terran 1 Vega C Vega E Vulcan Zero Zhuque-2
Retired	Antares 110 120 130^† 230 Ariane 1 2 3 4 ASLV Athena I II Atlas B D E/F G H I II III LV-3B SLV-3 Able Agena Centaur Black Arrow Conestoga^† Delta A B C D E G J L M N 0100 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 II III IV Diamant Dnepr Energia Europa^† Falcon 1 Falcon 9 v1.0 v1.1 v1.2 "Full Thrust" Feng Bao 1 GSLV Mk I H-I H-II H-IIB Juno I Juno II Kaituozhe-1 Kosmos 1 2I 3 3M Lambda 4S Long March 1 1D^† 2A 2E 3 3B 4A Mu 4S 3C 3H 3S 3SII V N1^† N-I N-II Naro-1 Paektusan Pilot-2^† R-7 Luna Molniya M L Polyot Soyuz original FG L M U U2 Soyuz/Vostok Sputnik Voskhod Vostok L K 2 2M R-29 Shtil' Volna^† Saturn I IB V Scout SLV Space Shuttle SPARK^† Sparta SS-520 Start-1 Thor Able Ablestar Agena Burner Delta DSV-2U Thorad-Agena Titan II GLV IIIA IIIB IIIC IIID IIIE 34D 23G CT-3 IV Tsyklon original 2 3 Universal Rocket UR-500 Proton Proton-K Rokot Strela Vanguard VLS-1^† Zenit 2 2M
Classes	Sounding rocket Small-lift launch vehicle Medium-lift launch vehicle Heavy-lift launch vehicle Super heavy-lift launch vehicle
This Template lists historical, current, and future space rockets that at least once attempted (but not necessarily succeeded in) an orbital launch or that are planned to attempt such a launch in the future Symbol ^† indicates historical or current rockets that attempted orbital launches but did not ever succeed (never did or has performed a successful orbital launch)

Orbital launch systems developed in the United States
Active	Antares 230+ Atlas V Delta IV Heavy Falcon 9 Block 5 Falcon Heavy LauncherOne Minotaur I IV V C Pegasus Rocket 3
In development	Firefly Alpha Beta New Glenn SLS Starship Terran 1 Vulcan
Retired	Antares 110/120/130/230** Athena I II Atlas B D E/F G H I II III LV-3B SLV-3 Able Agena Centaur Conestoga Delta A B C D E G J L M N 0100 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 II III IV Falcon 1 Falcon 9 v1.0 v1.1 v1.2 "Full Thrust" H-I* Juno I Juno II N-I* N-II* Pilot Saturn I IB V Scout Space Shuttle SPARK Sparta Thor Able Ablestar Agena Burner Delta DSV-2U Thorad-Agena Titan II GLV IIIA IIIB IIIC IIID IIIE 34D 23G CT-3 IV Vanguard
* - Japanese projects using US rockets or stages ** - uses Russian engines