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Aerojet was actually in a better position to build their Bomarc A-based Vanguard launch vehicle, because they already produced both its first stage (used to vertically boost the Bomarc A to ramjet ignition velocity, and then some) and its second stage (based closely upon the Aerobee), plus they had the solid propellant motor expertise--and production facilities--to produce its third stage, but: Martin--called the Glenn L. Martin Company, back then; Martin Marietta and Lockheed Martin came later--had produced the "ethylox" (ethyl alcohol/LOX-powered) Viking sounding rocket for the U.S. Navy. The Vanguard first stage was based on the Viking, but it -wasn't- a "modified Viking" (as some literature back then said), as Arthur C. Clarke pointed out in "The Making of a Moon: The Story of the Earth Satellite Program": https://www.google.com/search?q=The...sclient=gws-wiz ). The first stage burned RP-1 kerosene (refined by Shell Oil Company) and LOX, in a General Electric X-405 rocket engine (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XLR50 [the Viking's Reaction Motors XLR50 wasn't powerful enough]). Martin also had to contract with Aerojet for the Aerobee-based second stage (later called the Able, used with Thor and Atlas first stages) and with Grand Central Rocket Company--and later with Allegheny Ballistics Laboratory (for Vanguard III's fiberglass-cased Altair)--for the third stage. But Willy Ley, the German-American rocketry and space writer (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willy_Ley - he left Germany in 1935, to emigrate to the U.S.), pointed out a funny thing (which he--and his adoptive country--ultimately regretted): Had the joint U.S. Army-U.S. Navy Project Orbiter (started in 1954 [see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orbiter *and* http://www.drewexmachina.com/downlo.../SV_1998_01.pdf ]; as Clarke wrote in his book, he accidentally walked in on their first planning meeting, at the U.S. Naval Research Lab! [see: https://www.nrl.navy.mil/ ] :-) ) been left alone, the U.S. would have orbited the world's first artificial satellite in 1956! (For Project Orbiter, the Army would have provided a Redstone-based launch vehicle similar to the later Jupiter-C / Juno I, but originally using multiple, clustered Loki upper stages [using 37 Loki motors in total], instead of the later clustered Baby Sergeant motors, which didn't exist [or at least, weren't yet proven] in 1954; Project Orbiter was to use only existing, then-proven rocket hardware. The Navy would have provided the satellite, and tracking stations/tracking ships.) If any usable Bomarc B solid motors are still around, various existing guided missile motors (Sparrow, Sidewinder, AMRAAM, etc.) could be clustered and stacked atop the Bomarc B motors and spun for stabilization (like with the Jupiter-C / Juno I and the Juno II [which used a stretched Jupiter IRBM first stage]), to make "DIY satellite launch vehicles."
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Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see: http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185 http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050 http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511 All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com. NAR #54895 SR Last edited by blackshire : 07-08-2022 at 08:48 PM. |
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