11-04-2017, 11:08 AM
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Master Modeler
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Fairbanks, Alaska
Posts: 6,507
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by tbzep
The NASA fact sheet says the Scout 1st stage was developed from Jupiter Senior and Polaris. I've never seen any reference of Jupiter Senior, and we all know the Jupiter missile was the Army's first liquid fueled MRBM along with its Thor sibling in the AF. The Scout was a solid booster. What is the "Jupiter Senior"?
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/langle...eets/Scout.html |
I read that too, recently (on that very webpage), and I don't know what it was. I conjecture that since the Jupiter IRBM was, for a time, being developed for Navy as well as Army use (the Navy was never enthusiastic about handling LOX and kerosene aboard surface ships, and especially aboard submarines [although they did design a Jupiter sub with an outsize conning tower to house the missiles--it's in the book "Adventures in Partnership: The Story of Polaris"]), "Jupiter Senior" might have been the name of the first proposed solid motor for a Jupiter-equivalent Navy missile, which later became the Algol motor. (Also, the original Algol motor was 40" in diameter--the 45" Scout first stage motor that is referred to on that NASA Langley page was the "fat," improved Algol that powered the Scout G, the last Scout variant to fly. The Castor second stage's diameter is given--incorrectly--as 30" [it was 31" in diameter].) |