Thor Ablestar

by Jean-Jacques Serra
listing by Gunter Krebs
The Ablestar stage was developped for the US Navy by Space General Co. It was 5.3 m long and 1.63 m in diameter, equipped with an adjustable Aerojet AJ10-104 motor (nitric acid/UDMH). This engine could be reignited and provided a 35 kN thrust during about 300 seconds. Thor Ablestar was 24.2 m high for about 54 tons.

Thor Ablestar was used to launch navigation satellites ( Transit) so as numerous technologic and scientific spacecrafts ( Solrad) for the US Navy. Some satellites were launched together with NASA. Thor Ablestar was used during 5 years and achieved the first in-orbit reignition in April 1960 and the first double, triple and sextuple -satellite launch.

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Thor Ablestar launches

# and serial	Launch id	Payload	Launch date	Site	Type	Status (orbit in perigee x apogee x inc. x period)
1, 257	60003	Transit 1B	13 Apr 1960	C	DM21 AbleStar	373 x 748 x 51.3 x 95.8
2, 281	60007	Transit 2A Solrad 01	22 Jun 1960	C	DM21 AbleStar
3, 262	n/a	Courier 1A	18 Aug 1960	C	DM21 AbleStar	Failure: Thor failed after 134 s
4, 293	60013	Courier 1B	04 Oct 1960	C	DM21 AbleStar
5, 283	n/a	Transit 3A Solrad 2	30 Nov 1960	C	DM21 AbleStar	Failure: Thor shud down too early
6, 313	61007	Transit 3B LOFTI	22 Feb 1961	C	DM21 AbleStar	Partial failure: satellites failed to separate 188 x 822 x 28.4 x 96.2
7, 315	61015	Transit 4A Solrad 03	29 Jun 1961	C	DM21 AbleStar	Partial failure: Injun 1 and Solrad 3 failed to separate
8, 305	61031	Transit 4B Traac	15 Nov 1961	C	DM21 AbleStar
9, 311	n/a	Lofti 2 Secor 1 Solrad 4 Surcal 1	24 Jan 1962	C	DM21 AbleStar	Failure: AbleStar produced unsufficient thrust Surcal 1 was fixed to AbleStar
10, 314	n/a	Anna 1A	10 May 1962	C	DM21 AbleStar	Failure: AbleStar failed to ignite
11, 319	62060	Anna 1B	31 Oct 1962	C	DM21 AbleStar
12, 375	63038	Transit 5BN1 5E1	28 Sep 1963	V	DM21 AbleStar
13, 385	63049	Transit 5BN2 5E3	05 Dec 1963	V	DM21 AbleStar
14, 379	n/a	Transit 5BN3	21 Apr 1964	V	DM21 AbleStar	Failure: AbleStar failed
15, 250	64063	Transit-O 1 (OPS 5798, NNS 30010) Calsphere 1 & 2	06 Oct 1964	V	DM21 AbleStar	1035 x 1080 x 89.9 x 106.6
16, 423	64083	Transit-O 2 (OPS 6582 NNS 30020) 5E5	13 Dec 1964	V	DM21 AbleStar	1027 x 1086 x 90 x 106.3
17, 440	65017	Transit-O 3 (OPS 7087 NNS 30030) Secor 02	11 Mar 1965	V	DM21 AbleStar
18, 447	65048	Transit-O 4 (OPS 8480, NNS 30040)	24 Jun 1965	V	DM21 AbleStar	1025 x 1114 x 90 x 106.9
19, 455	65065	Transit-O 5 (OPS 8464, NNS 30050) Surcal (x3?) Dodecapole 2 Tempsat 1	13 Aug 1965	V	DM21 AbleStar	1089 x 1194 x 90 x 108.2

Notes: in the launcher date & site column C stands for Cape Canaveral and V for Vandenberg.

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