Space Launch Now - Trailblazer 1

Trailblazer 1

In-active

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

March 3, 1959

Description

American test vehicle. The rocket's first three stages would take the upper stage package to a 260 km apogee. The upper stage package was mounted upside-down in relation to the other stages. When it had reached the peak, the three upper stages fired in sequence, ramming the payload, a 13 cm sphere, into the atmosphere at orbital re-entry speeds.

Specifications

Stages
4
Length
17.1 m
Diameter
0.58 m
Fairing Diameter
0.58 m
Launch Mass
3.0 T
Thrust
365.0 kN

Family

Name
Trailblazer 1
Family
―
Variant
1
Alias
―
Full Name
Trailblazer 1

Payload Capacity

Launch Cost
―
Low Earth Orbit
―
Geostationary Transfer Orbit
―
Direct Geostationary
―
Sun-Synchronous Capacity
―

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Government

Administrator: Bill Nelson

NASA 1958

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. NASA have many launch facilities but most are inactive. The most commonly used pad will be LC-39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Previous Flights

flew on one previous launch(es).

Trailblazer 1 | Trailblazer 1g

National Aeronautics and Space Administration | United States of America
Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia, USA
April 21, 1961, 5:56 a.m.

Status: Launch Successful

Mission:

An experiment where an actual 'artificial meteorite' was flown. This was a 5.8 g steel pellet, which was driven into the atmosphere at 6 km/sec by a 'seventh stage', a shaped charge that accelerated the pellet after burnout of the rocket's six stage. This experiment provided a known reference by which the size of actual meteoroids could be measured according to the luminance of their trails.

Suborbital

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