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RM-90 Blue Scout II

U.S. sounding rocket, 1961

Field	Value
image	Blue Scout II rocket-02.jpg
caption	Blue Scout II rocket
function	Expendable launch system
Sounding rocket
manufacturer	Vought
country-origin	United States
height	24 m
diameter	1.02 m
mass	16874 kg
stages	Four
family	Scout
status	Retired
sites	Canaveral LC-18B
launches	3
success	2
fail	1
first	1961-03-03
last	1961-11-01
capacities
type	Stage
stageno	First
name	Algol 1B
engines	1 solid
thrust	471 kN
SI	236 sec
burntime	40 seconds
fuel	Solid
type	Stage
stageno	Second
name	Castor 2
engines	1 TX-354-3
thrust	286 kN
SI	247 sec
burntime	27 seconds
fuel	Solid
type	Stage
stageno	Third
name	Antares 1A
engines	1 X-254
thrust	60 kN
SI	256 sec
burntime	39 seconds
fuel	Solid
type	Stage
stageno	Fourth
name	Altair 1A
engines	1 X-248A
thrust	14 kN
SI	255 sec
burntime	40 seconds
fuel	Solid

Sounding rocket |country-origin = United States The RM-90 Blue Scout II was an American sounding rocket and expendable launch system which was flown three times during 1961. It was a member of the Scout family of rockets. Blue Scout II was a military version of the NASA-operated Scout X-1, with adjustments to the payload fairings, engine nozzles and fins.

Blue Scout II had a total length of 21.65 m and a finspan of 2.84 m.

It was capable of sending a 30 kg payload to a 300 km orbit at 28.00 degrees. It was a four stage vehicle, with the following engines:

Stage 1: Algol 1B, solid propellant;
Stage 2: Castor 2 (TX-354-3), solid propellant;
Stage 3: Antares 1A (Star 31/X-254), solid propellant;
Stage 4: Altair 1A (X-248), solid propellant.

Blue Scout II was used for two HETS test flights, and the launch of the Mercury-Scout 1 satellite for NASA. This rocket and RM-89 Blue Scout I were replaced by Blue Scout Junior.

Blue Scout II parameters

Parameter	1st Stage	2nd Stage	3rd Stage
10,705 kg	4,424 kg	1,225 kg	238 kg
1,900 kg	695 kg	294 kg	30 kg
470 kN	259 kN	60.5 kN	12.4 kN
214 s (2.10 kNs/kg)	262 s (2.57 kNs/kg)	256 s (2.51 kNs/kg)	256 s (2.51 kNs/kg)
40 s	37 s	39 s	38 s
9.12 m	6.04 m	3.38 m	1.83 m
1.01 m	0.79 m	0.78 m	0.46 m
Aerojet General Algol 1	Thiokol XM33 (TX-354-3) Castor 2	Allegany Ballistics Lab X-254 Antares 1A	Allegany Ballistics Lab X-248 Altair 1
Solid	Solid	Solid	Solid

Launches

All three Blue Scout II launches occurred from Launch Complex 18B at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the same launch pad used for the Blue Scout I.

The first two launches were successfully conducted on 3 March and 12 April 1961 respectively, using vehicles D-4 and D-5. They both carried HETS A2 plasma research experiments on suborbital trajectories.

The third launch was conducted on 1 November, using vehicle D-8, with the Mercury-Scout 1 satellite for NASA, which was intended to reach low Earth orbit. The launch failed after the rocket went out of control, and was destroyed by the range safety officer 43 seconds after liftoff.

Date	Serial	Agency	Orbit	Mission Description
1961 March 3	D-4	USAF	Suborbital, 2540 km apogee	HETS A2-1 plasma mission
1961 April 12	D-5	USAF	Suborbital, 1931 km apogee	HETS A2-2 plasma mission
1961 November 1	D-8	USAF	373 km × 643 km, 32.5° (planned)	Mercury-Scout 1 (failure)

References

Mark, Mark. "Blue Scout II".
Gunter, Krebs. "Blue Scout-2".
Parsch, Andreas. (2003). "Ford RM-90 Blue Scout II".
Krebs, Gunter. "Scout (Algol-1, -2 based)".
"Antares 1A".
"Mercury-Scout 1 (MS 1, MNTV 1)".
McDowell, Jonathan. "Orbital & Suborbital Launch Database - Scout".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1961-in-spaceflight scout-(rocket-family) vought

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