Engineering:List of Thor DM-18 Agena-A launches

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

Thor DM-18 Agena A or just 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.[1]

Launch statistics

Launch outcome

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Launchpad

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Launch history

The data in this table comes from[2] and [3][4][5]
Date/Time
(UTC) 		Rocket S/N Launch Site Payload Function Orbit Outcome Remarks
1959-02-28
21:49:16 		Thor DM-18 Agena-A Thor 163
Agena 1022 		VAFB LC-75-3-4 Discoverer 1 Reconnaissance LEO Failure Maiden flight of Thor-Agena. Agena telemetry lost T+730 seconds. Fate of the payload unknown, but generally presumed to have impacted somewhere in Antarctica.
1959-04-13
21:18:39 		Thor DM-18 Agena-A Thor 170
Agena 1018 		VAFB LC-75-3-4 Discoverer 2 Reconnaissance LEO Success
1959-06-03
20:09:20 		Thor DM-18 Agena-A Thor 174
Agena 1020 		VAFB LC-75-3-4 Discoverer 3 Reconnaissance LEO Failure Agena attitude control malfunction pointed the stage in the wrong direction, sending it into the Pacific Ocean rather than orbit.
1959-06-25
22:47:45 		Thor DM-18 Agena-A Thor 179
Agena 1023 		VAFB LC-75-3-5 Discoverer 4 Reconnaissance LEO Failure Agena developed insufficient thrust to attain orbital velocity.
1959-08-13
19:00:08 		Thor DM-18 Agena-A Thor 192
Agena 1029 		VAFB LC-75-3-4 Discoverer 5 Reconnaissance LEO Success
1959-08-19
19:24:44 		Thor DM-18 Agena-A Thor 200
Agena 1028 		VAFB LC-75-3-5 Discoverer 6 Reconnaissance LEO Success
1959-11-07
20:28:41 		Thor DM-18 Agena-A Thor 206
Agena 1051 		VAFB LC-75-3-4 Discoverer 7 Reconnaissance LEO Success
1959-11-20
19:25:24 		Thor DM-18 Agena-A Thor 212
Agena 1050 		VAFB LC-75-3-5 Discoverer 8 Reconnaissance LEO Failure Orbit too eccentric for use of return capsule
1960-02-04
18:51:45 		Thor DM-18 Agena-A Thor 218
Agena 1052 		VAFB LC-75-3-4 Discoverer 9 Reconnaissance LEO Failure Premature Thor cutoff. Agena could not attain orbital velocity.
1960-02-19
20:15:14 		Thor DM-18 Agena-A Thor 223
Agena 1054 		VAFB LC-75-3-5 Discoverer 10 Reconnaissance LEO Failure Thor flight control malfunction. RSO T+52 seconds.
1960-04-15
20:30:37 		Thor DM-18 Agena-A Thor 234
Agena 1055 		VAFB LC-75-3-5 Discoverer 11 Reconnaissance LEO Success
1960-06-29
22:00:44 		Thor DM-18 Agena-A Thor 160
Agena 1053 		VAFB LC-75-3-4 Discoverer 12 Reconnaissance LEO Failure Agena attitude control malfunction.
1960-08-10
20:37:54 		Thor DM-18 Agena-A Thor 231
Agena 1057 		VAFB LC-75-3-5 Discoverer 13 Reconnaissance LEO Success First successful recovery of a manmade object from orbit.
1960-08-18
19:57:08 		Thor DM-18 Agena-A Thor 237
Agena 1056 		VAFB LC-75-3-4 Discoverer 14 Reconnaissance LEO Success
1960-09-13
22:14 		Thor DM-18 Agena-A Thor 246
Agena 1058 		VAFB LC-75-3-5 Discoverer 15 Reconnaissance LEO Success

References

  1. ↑ "Thor Agena A". http://www.astronautix.com/t/thoragenaa.html. 
  2. ↑ "Thor Agena" (in en). https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_lau/thor_agena.htm. 
  3. ↑ "Thor-DM18 Agena-A" (in en). https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_lau_det/thor-dm18_agena-a.htm. 
  4. ↑ "Discoverer-14 1960-010A". NASA. 14 May 2020. https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1960-010A. 
  5. ↑ TRW Space Log. TRW Systems Group. August 4, 1960. pp. 10–12. https://books.google.com/books?id=QpUPAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA12. 



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