Atlas-Agena

Atlas-Agena

An Atlas-Agena launching Lunar Orbiter 4
Function	Expendable launch system
Manufacturer	Convair General Dynamics
Country of origin	United States
Launch history
Status	Retired
Launch sites	LC-12, 13 & 14, CCAFS SLC-3 & 4, Vandenberg
Total launches	109
Successes	93
Failures	13
Partial failures	3
First flight	26 February 1960
Last flight	27 June 1978

The Atlas-Agena was an American expendable launch system derived from the SM-65 Atlas missile. It was a member of the Atlas family of rockets, and was used for 119 orbital launches between 1960 and 1978.^[1]

The Atlas-Agena was a two-and-a-half stage rocket, with a stage-and-a-half Atlas missile as the first stage, and an RM-81 Agena second stage. Initially, Atlas D missiles, redesignated as the LV-3, were used as the first stage^[2] These were later replaced by the standardised Atlas SLV-3, and its derivatives, the SLV-3A and B. The final Atlas-Agena launch used an Atlas E/F.

Launches were conducted from Launch Complexes 12, 13 and 14 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and Launch Complexes 1 and 2 at Point Arguello (now SLC-3 and 4 at Vandenberg Air Force Base).

Variants [edit]

Notable launches [edit]

The Agena Target vehicle for Gemini 6 is launched on October 25, 1965

On 1965-10-25 the Agena stage of an Atlas-Agena D failed to orbit the first Gemini Agena Target Vehicle (GATV), which was planned for use as the rendezvous target for the Gemini 6 mission.^[3] The failure of the GATV launch led NASA to instead have Gemini 6 rendezvous with another piloted spacecraft, Gemini 7.^[4]

Later on March 16, 1965 the Agena target vehicle for Gemini 8 was successful resulting with Gemini 8 performing the first successful docking in space; it was aborted shortly after due to thruster malfunction. The Agena was later used as the secondary Agena target for Gemini 10.

References [edit]

v t e Atlas rockets Main articles Atlas family SM-65 Atlas Rockets Prototypes MX-774 Atlas A Atlas B Atlas C Missiles Atlas D Atlas E Atlas F Launch systems Alphabetical Atlas B Atlas D Atlas E/F Atlas G Atlas H Upper stages Atlas-Able Atlas-Agena Atlas-Centaur Numerical Atlas I Atlas II Atlas III Atlas V Other Atlas LV-3B Atlas SLV-3 GX Launch sites Cape Canaveral LC-11 LC-12 LC-13 LC-14 (S)LC-36 SLC-41 Vandenberg LC-576 SLC-3 SLC-4 Bases Altus Dyess Fairchild Forbes Francis E. Warren Lincoln Offutt Plattsburgh Schilling Walker Components Boosters Aerojet SRM Castor 4A MA First stages Common Core Booster Upper stages Able Agena Altair Burner Centaur IABS MSD OIS PTS SGS Star SVS Trident Engines AJ-10 B-8048 B-8081 B-8096 LR-89 LR-105 R-4D RD-180 RL10 RS-56 Corporations Manufacturers Rocket Convair General Dynamics Lockheed Lockheed Martin Engines Aerojet NPO Energomash Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne Thiokol LSPs International Launch Services United Launch Alliance Launches 1957-1959 1960-1969 1970-1979 1980-1989 1990-1999 2000-2009 2010-2019

v t e Expendable launch systems Current Spaceflight portal Antares Ariane 5 Atlas V Delta II IV Dnepr-1 GSLV H-IIA H-IIB Falcon 9‡ Kaituozhe-1 Kosmos-3M Long March 1D 2C 2D 2F 3A 3B 3C 4B 4C Minotaur I IV Paektusan Pegasus Proton-M PSLV Rokot Safir Shavit Shtil' Start-1 Strela Soyuz U FG 2 Taurus Tsyklon-2 Unha Vega VLS-1 Volna Zenit 2 2M 3SL 3SLB 3F Planned Angara Athena Ic IIc Ausroc IV Epsilon Falcon Heavy‡ GSLV Mk III Haas Long March 5 6 7 9 11 Minotaur V Naro-2 RPS (420, 550) Simorgh SLS Southern Cross Soyuz-2-1v SPARK Tsyklon-4 VLM VLS-Alfa VLS-Beta Previous 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 III Diamant Energia Europa Falcon 1‡ Feng Bao 1 H-I H-II J-I Juno I Juno II Kosmos 1 2I 3 Lambda 4S Long March 1 2A 2E 3 4A Mu 4S 3C 3H 3S 3SII V N1 N-I N-II Naro-1 Pilot Proton UR-500 K R-7 Luna Molniya M Polyot Soyuz L M U2 Soyuz/Vostok Sputnik Voskhod Vostok L K 2 2M Saturn I IB V INT-21 Scout SLV Sparta Thor Able Ablestar Agena Burner Delta DSV-2U Thorad-Agena Titan II GLV IIIA IIIB IIIC IIID IIIE 34D 23G CT-3 IV Tsyklon 3 Vanguard ‡ – Falcon 1 and 9 were designed for partial reuse, which was never achieved and has now been abandoned, however a fully-reusable Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy are under long-term development.

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əərɵEnglish pronunciation: /θ/