N EWS R E LEAS E

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

400 MARYLAND AVENUE, SW, WASHINGTON 25, D.C.
TELEPHONES WORTH 2-4155-WORTH 3-1110

FOR RELEASE: Wednesday PM's

January 2, 1962
Release No. 62-15

EIGHTH SCOUT DEVELOPMENT FLIGHT TO STUDY

AERODYNAMIC HEATING

The eighth in a series of development flights of the

Scout launch vehicle is planned in the near future by the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration at the NASA
Wallops Station, Wallops Island, Virginia.
Primary purpose of the sub-orbital flight will be to
give NASA scientists another opportunity to study the per-
formance of the Scout launch vehicle.
The four-stage Scout, flown on the first in a series
of development flights on July 1, 1960, has been under
development at the NASA Langley Research Center since
mid-1958 to provide the United States with a small, reliable
and flexible research vehicle for a variety of space explo-
ration tasks.
In the forthcoming test, the basic four-stage solid-
fueled Scout will contain a fifth solid fuel stage--a
17-inch-diameter spherical rocket motor.

As a secondary project in connection with the develop-

ment flight, Langley scientists will conduct an experiment
to measure aerodynamic heating during reentry at speeds
approaching those to be reached by manned spacecraft return-
ing from lunar missions,
After launch from Wallops Island, the first two Scout
stages will propel the remaining three stages to an altitude
of about 135 statute miles. As the vehicle reaches the
peak of its trajectory and begins to nose over, the third,
fourth and fifth stages fire in rapid succession to drive
the payload into the atmosphere at a speed of aout 19d,000
miles an hour.
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This speed is about 3,000 miles an hour faster than the
reentry velocities of earth-orbiting vehicles and approximately
7,000 miles an hour slower than the speeds to be attained by
capsules reentering the atmosphere en route to earth after a
trip to the moon.

LAUNCH VEHICLE
Scout is the first all-solid fueled rocket to place a
satellite into orbit. This was Explorer IX, an inflatable
15-pound, 12-foot diameter sphere, fabricated of Mylar plastic
and aluminum foil. Explorer IX is designed for use in studying
the characteristics of space--rrimarily to measure air drag
to determine the density of the earth's thin veil of atmosphere
at the edge of space.

The last Scout launch--the seventh--was on October 19,

1961, when the vehicle successfully propelled a 94-pound pay-
load on a ballistic flight to investigate ionospheric character-
istics of importance to radio communication, radio tracking
and guidance, and to add to the basic understanding of the
earth's ionosphere. All objectives of the flight were achieved
and all launch vehicle systems functioned normally.
All seven of the previous Scout development flights have
been conducted at Wallops Island and with the basic four stages
of the launch vehicle. Although the primary purpose of each
development flight is to check out the vehicle, it has been
the policy of the NASA to conduct useful scientific experi-
ments as a secondary part of each flight.
The 72-foot, 36,600-pound Scout is designed to place a
150-pound satellite into a 300-mile orbit or to send a 50-
pound scientific package nearly 8,500 miles in a probe shot.
In reentry tests, the vehicle can subject a payload to con-
ditions similar to those encountered by spacecraft returning
to the earth's atmosphere. In a ballistic trajectory, it
can provide almost two hours of weightlessness for 100-pound
experiments.
Scout's four rocket motors, plus necessary transition
sections and guidance and control equipment, are assembled
intQ a complete vehicle by the Astronautics Division of
Chance Vought Corporation, aerospace subsidiary of Ling-
Temco-Vought, Incorporated, prime vehicle contractor for A

Scout.
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Data on Scout's four stages -- Algol, Castor Antares,

and Altair (named for stars in the constellationsj -- include:

Algol - Thirty feet long, 40 inches in diameter,

developing 115,000 pounds of thrust. This motor, the largest
solid rocket flown in the United States, is fin stabilized
and controlled in flight by jet vanes. Developed by
Aerojet-General Di-vision of General Tire and Rubber Company.
Castor - Twenty feet long, 30 inches in diameter and
developing more than 50,000 pounds of thrust. Stabilized
and controlled by hydrogen peroxide jets. A modification
of the Sergeant motor, it has been used in a cluster in
NASA's Little Joe program in support of Project Mercury.
Developed by the Redstone Division of Thiokol Chemical
Corporation.

Antares - Ten feet long, 30 inches in diameter and more

than T3760'pounds of thrust. Lightweight plastic construction.
Stabilized and controlled by hydrogen peroxide jets. Developed
by the Allegany Ballistics Laboratory of Hercules Powder
aCompany.

Altair - Six feet long, 18 inches in diameter and 3 000

poundsrof thrust. This motor, formerly known as the X-248
and developed for the Vanguard third stage, is spin stabilized.
It is the third stage on the Delta launch vehicle and was
the first fully developed rocket to utilize lightweight plastic
construction. Alao developed by ABL.
17-Inch Rocket - This spherical rocket (NOTS 1OOB) is not
a part of the Scout, but is attached to the payload as a part
of the reentry package to add approximately 1,300 miles an
hour to the reentry speed. The 160-pound rocket provides
about 800 pounds cf thrust. Developed by Naval Ordnance Test
Station, China Lake, California.
Guidance and control system for the Scout was developed
by the Aeronautical Division of M4inneapolis-Honeywell
Regulator Company. (Hydrogen-peroxide controls were sub-
contracted to Walter Kidde, Clifton, New Jersey).
REENTRY EXPERIMENT
Friction heating becomes increasingly severe as space-
craft reentry speeds are raised. In fact, scientists believe
that future space vehicles will attain speeds close to the
velocities of some meteors as they return to the earth's
atmosphere.
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 The forthcoming Scout test is part of a basic flight pro-
gram by which Langley hopes to obtain heat data useful in th[e
design of man-carrying spacecraft of tomorrow.

The Scout experiment will measure the aerodynamic heat

transfer to the nose cap of a small blunted-nose reentry pay-
load.-mounted to the Scout fourth stage and containing measur-
ing devices, a telemetry system, and the spherical rocket
motor which accelerates the payload to its final velocity.
The cone is 3 feet long and has a base diameter of 20 inches
and a nose diameter of 12 inches.
The payload experiment will weigh 155.2 pounds, but the
basic four-stage Scout will be boosting a combined weight
of about 350 pounds, including the payload experiment and
nearly 200 pounds represented by the 17-inch rocket motor
and other structural hardware.
Reentry will take place about 800 statute miles downrange
from Wallops Island. Since the flight will take place at
night, a faint meteor-like trail lasting five to ten seconds
will be visible from islands downrange from Cape Canaveral
as the payload reaches peak velocity at an altitude of about
50 miles above the Atlantic Ocean.
Heat transfer data will be obtained from temperature
measurements made by thermocouples attached to an inconel nose
cap mounted on the forward end of the payload. Due to the
severe reentry environment, the nose cap will survive for only
a few seconds before it melts. Then the melted cap and a
frangible supporting structure will be blown away by the
airstream--exposing a teflon nose cap designed zo protect the
payload package b r ablative cooling so it can survive the
final phase of reentry. The conical portion of the payload
is also coated with teflon for thermal protection.
Telemetry data will be obtained during the final desqent
of the reentry payload. Prior to that time, the high reentry
speed will result in a so-called ion sheath being formed about
the vehicle--causing a radio blackout and preventing telemetry
transmission. To avoid loss of valuable data because of the
temporarily disruptive influence of the Ion sheath, Langley
scientists have installed a tape recorder in the payload to
record reentry infocmation. This will be stored for trans-
mission during the final descent after the vehicle has slowed
sufficiently in its reentry so that the ion sheath is no
longer present. No attempt will be made to recover the pay-
load.
As a secondary experiment during the launch, a camera will
be housed within a pod attached to the Scout second stage to
photograph the Jet exhaust pattern of the second stage rocket
motor for future study by Langley scientists.
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At second-stage burnout, the pod will be jettisoned and
parachuted into the Atlantic some 600 statute miles from the
launch site. An attempt will be made by a sea and air unit
of the U. S. Navy to recover the pod, which contains recovery
devices such as radar chaff, radio beacon, flashing light,
and dye marker.
In addition to telemetry signals which will be relayed to
ground receiving stations from the payload, scientific infor-
mation will be obtained through use of ground radar and
ballistic tracking cameras. Supplementing land-based tracking
stations will be two ships of the U. S. Navy equipped with
Wallops Island telemeter vans and antennas which will be de-
ployed in the Atlantic.
Special tracking cameras will be used to obtain reentry
photographs from downrange islands. The flight is being con-
ducted on a dark night to eliminate background light and thus
increase tthe quality of the photographs of the faint metcor-
likce streak across the sky.

In an effort to obtain a precise trajectory, ground based

radar installations plus the two telemetry ships and other
telemetry installations will track the vehicle.

SEQUENCE OF EVENTS
Scout is lifted off the Wallops Island launch pad by the
Algol booster, which burns out in 41.30 seconds at an altltudt
oF 50,000 feet. All stages coast to 125,000 feet as the
second-stage Castor ignites at 63.53 seconds and the first
stage separates and drops into the Atlantic Ocean. i'einai ndeI'
rpj(
of the vehicle climbs to 265,000 feet before the second stage
burns out at 11.89 seconds.

Coasting to about 705,000 feet, apogee of the ballistic

trajectory, the vehicle loses the payload heat shield at
291.75 seconds and about 300 statute miles from Wallops.
About a second later the third stage Antares is ignited to
begin the downward leg of the trajectory and the second-stage
Castor is separated. Antares burns out at 332.80 seconds at
675,000 feet and separates at 348.30 seconds at 650,000 feet,
less than two seconds after the spin motor is ignited.

Continuing its high-velocity reentry, Scout's fourth-utage

Altair ignites at 352.80 seconds at 640,000 feet and burns
out at 393.83 seconds at an altitude of 490,000 feet. Immediate-
ly upon fourth-stage burnout, about 560 statute miles front
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Wallops, the 17-inch rocket ignites and the Altair is sepa-

rated. The spherical rocket burns out at 416.84 seconds at an
altitude of about 255,000 feet.

Climax of the seven minute-plus flight is reached when

the payload streaks like a meteor into the atmosphere at a
velocity of 19,000 miles an hour, about 800 statute mllc.z from
Wallops. The prime data portion of the flight is betwoecn
255,000 to about 150,000 feet altitude during reentry. As the
payload package reenterso the atmosphere, it is prograwmmed to
be on a slanting downward course aimed at a general area in
the Atlantic some 925 statute miles downrange from Wallops.

PIZOJf.CT PARTICIPANTS
NASA Headquarters Program Manager for the Scout aevuiop-
ment program is R.D. Ginter.
ijangley Research Center. has sole responsibility for the
technical direction of the Scout launch vehicle system. TLt.
Col. George R. Rupp is the Scout Program'Director for Lan-ley
Research Center. James R. Hall is NASA project engineer for
the Scout development test. A team of about 75 Langley staff
members are concerned with the reentry payload. Andrew G.
Swanson is the project engineer for the reentry experiment.
Bernard Rashis is payload project engineer. Charles S. Laird
is payload instrument engineer.
Robert Duffy is representing the Wallops Station as Test;
Directbr.
Chance Vought Corporation is the prime contractor for
the Scout launch vehicle.

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