GRAB-1 was the world's first successful reconnaissance satellite, preceding the first Corona mission to return film (Discoverer 14 on August 18) by almost two months. These now-declassified satellites operated under a cover story of providing solar radiation data and included an electronics package to detect Soviet air defense radar signals. On 22 June 1960, a Thor-Ablestar launched the first Galactic Radiation and Background (GRAB) electronic intelligence (ELINT) satellite for the United States Navy. On 13 April 1960, a Thor-Ablestar launched Transit 1B, the first experimental satellite of what eventually became the Global Navigation Satellite System. It was used as the upper stage, and provided improved performance. On 7 August 1959, a Thor-Able was used to successfully launch Explorer 6, the first satellite to transmit pictures of Earth taken from orbit.Īblestar was a liquid-propellant rocket stage burning hypergolic propellants fed from gas-pressurized propellant tanks. The mission ended prematurely at 73.6 seconds after launch on 17 August 1958 due to a turbopump failure.
#NASA ROCKET STAGE AGENA TV#
A Thor Able I was used in an attempt to place the 84 lb (38 kg) Pioneer 0 spacecraft into lunar orbit where it would take pictures of the lunar surface with a TV camera. The Able stage from the Atlas reentry vehicle tests was upgraded to become the Able I with a third stage consisting of an unguided Altair X-248 solid-fuel rocket motor. Three mice, one on each vehicle, died in these tests. The recovery of the reentry vehicles on the succeeding two attempts were not successful. The first such launch, 116, was lost on 23 April 1958 due to a turbopump failure in the main engine. Able used the Aerojet AJ-10-40 engine from the Vanguard second stage. For these three tests a Thor core stage was topped by the Able second stage. Thor was first used as a launch vehicle during the testing program of the warhead reentry vehicle for the Atlas missile.
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