MISS 9Spacecraft:(no serial number) Launch Vehicle: Thor/Able Scheduled Launch: 1 Jan 1960 Last Scheduled: 11 Sep 1958 |
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Description: 9th MISS Thor/Able unmanned suborbital |
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The beginning of the Air Force's Man In Space Soonest (MISS) program has been traced back to a staff meeting of General Thomas S. Power, Commander of the Air Research and Development Command (ARDC) in Baltimore on 15 February 1956. Power wanted studies to begin on manned space vehicles that would follow the X-15 rocketplane. These were to include winged and ballistic approaches - the ballistic rocket was seen as being a militarily useful intercontinental troop and cargo vehicle. The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 on 4 October, creating a political furor and giving new priority and urgency to the military's space efforts. On 15 October the NACA held a technical conference to resolve the final configuration for the Manned Glide Rocket Research System. The agreed delta-winged flat-bottom configuration would evolve into the X-20 Dyna-Soar. Nevertheless, interest continued in the ballistic reentry vehicle as a more immediate approach to human spaceflight, and this was the track that MISS pursued. The first launch vehicle considered for the project was the Thor IRBM, as the Atlas ICBM had yet to prove itself. The smaller Thor would need to have been mated with a highly energetic upper stage to place a spacecraft in orbit. Since technology to use liquid hydrogen had yet to be developed, the only choice was the Nomad design using hydrazine and liquid flourine propellants, as this combination yielded a very specific impulse. In March 1958 a development program was sketched out, requiring the flight of 10 Thor/Ables for initial tests and primate flights, to be followed by 20 Thor/Nomad flights. References:
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