Location
Radisson Resort at the Port, Salon I
Start Date
2-5-2000 1:00 PM
Description
U.S. liquid rocket propulsion technology has evolved over the past four decades to meet the changing needs of the user community and to enhance the national access to space capability. The lineage of today’s Atlas, Delta, and Titan Expendable Launch Vehicles (ELVs) is traceable to strategic missile system programs initiated in the 1950s. The Atlas and Delta ELVs were used to deploy the first weather, scientific, and communications satellites, and the Atlas D and Titan II ELVs were used to support NASA’s Mercury and Gemini manned space flight programs. Atlas, Delta, and Titan launch systems have continuously evolved over the years and have been used to deploy numerous lunar, planetary, and deep space exploration missions. The Titan III was the first ELV to incorporate solid strap-on booster motors to increase mission capability, and several variants of the Titan III vehicle were entered into service to adapt to East coast and West coast launch facilities and civil and military payloads. The Delta launch vehicle began to incorporate smaller solid strap-on boosters in the mid-1960s to increase performance and satisfy the demands of steadily increasing payload mass. The Atlas II launch system adopted the use of solid strap-on boosters in the early 1990s to accommodate a larger range of commercial payload mass (R-1).
Paper Session I-B - U.S. Expendable Liquid Rocket Propulsion Technology Trends: A Historical Perspective
Radisson Resort at the Port, Salon I
U.S. liquid rocket propulsion technology has evolved over the past four decades to meet the changing needs of the user community and to enhance the national access to space capability. The lineage of today’s Atlas, Delta, and Titan Expendable Launch Vehicles (ELVs) is traceable to strategic missile system programs initiated in the 1950s. The Atlas and Delta ELVs were used to deploy the first weather, scientific, and communications satellites, and the Atlas D and Titan II ELVs were used to support NASA’s Mercury and Gemini manned space flight programs. Atlas, Delta, and Titan launch systems have continuously evolved over the years and have been used to deploy numerous lunar, planetary, and deep space exploration missions. The Titan III was the first ELV to incorporate solid strap-on booster motors to increase mission capability, and several variants of the Titan III vehicle were entered into service to adapt to East coast and West coast launch facilities and civil and military payloads. The Delta launch vehicle began to incorporate smaller solid strap-on boosters in the mid-1960s to increase performance and satisfy the demands of steadily increasing payload mass. The Atlas II launch system adopted the use of solid strap-on boosters in the early 1990s to accommodate a larger range of commercial payload mass (R-1).
