Scout

by Jean-Jacques Serra
listing by Gunter Krebs
The Scout rocket was designed in 1957 by the NACA Langley center (which becamed the NASA Langley Research Center). It was mass produced from 1959 on by Vought Corp. (to become LTV). Scout was 21 m high, weighed 16 tons and was solid fuel only. It was used as light launcher so as sounding rocket. The first stage was an Algol made by Aerojet of 1.1 m diameter which provided 52 t thrust. Algol was controlled by a jet deflector called jetavator which has been designed for the Polaris program. The second stage was a Thiokol Castor derived from the tactical Sergeant missile and provided 24 t thrust. The two upper stages were built by Alleghany Ballistics (now Hercules). The third stage was a 6.2 t thrust Antares and the fourth stage a 1.4 t Altair.

The first launches of Scout in 1960 were ballistic flights. The first orbiting attempt failed in December 1960, but on 16 February 1961 Scout successfuly delivered Explorer 09 in orbit. Since then all its stages have been improved. One USAF specific version was called Blue Scout and a Blue Scout Junior (3-stage, Algol-less) was fired 22 times on ballistic missions.

Scouts were fired from 3 locations: Wallops Island, Vandenberg and San Marco. The latter is an italian oil platform at large from Kenya which only fired Scouts. Production of the Scout stopped in 1982 but the last vehicle was fired in 1994. This latter version (Scout G1) was 23 m high and weighed 21.7 tons.

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Evolution of Scout

Designation	First launch	1st stage	2nd stage	3rd stage	4th stage	inc: 90° (1)	inc: 38° (1)	inc: 2.9° (1)
Scout X-1	1960	Algol 1C	Castor 1	Antares 1	Altair 1	45	59
Scout X-2	1962	Algol 1D	Castor 1	Antares 2	Altair 1	59	76
Scout X-3	1963	Algol 2A	Castor 1	Antares 2	Altair 1	68	87
Scout X-4	1964	Algol 2B	Castor 1	Antares 2	Altair 2	80	103
Scout A-1	1965	Algol 2B	Castor 2	Antares 2	Altair 2	94	122
Scout B-1	1965	Algol 2B	Castor 2A	Antares 2A	Altair 3A	116	143	151
Scout D-1	1972	Algol 3A	Castor 2A	Antares 2A	Altair 3A	148	185	198
Scout F-1	1974	Algol 3A	Castor 2A	Antares 2B	Altair 3A	156	193	203
Scout G-1	1974	Algol 3A	Castor 2A	Antares 3A	Altair 3A	166	208	220

Notes: (1) Payload (kg) in circular 550 km orbit; Launches from Vandenberg (90°), Wallops Island (38°) and San Marco (2.9°)

Scout was used both by NASA and USAF. It was used for:
- Scientific satellites of America (Explorer program), international organizations ( ESRO) and other countries ( Ariel, San Marco, FR 1, Eole, Azur, Aeros, Miranda, ANS)
- US satellites for military, navigation ( Transit, Triad, Nova, etc.) and technology ( OV3, MSTI, etc.) purposes

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Scout launches (without Blue Scout)

#	Launch id	Payload	Launch Date	Site	Type	Status/Comment (orbit in perigee x apogee x inclination x period)
1, ST-1	n/a	NASA radiation probe	02 Sep 1960	W	X1	Ballistic flight
2, ST-2	n/a	USAF radiation probe	4 Oct 1960	W	X1	Failure Ballistic flight
3, ST-3	n/a	Explorer S56	04 Dec 1960	W	X1	Failure
4, ST-4	61004	Explorer 09	16 Feb 1961	W	X1	634x2583x38.9
5, ST-5	n/a	Explorer S55	30 Jun 1961	W	X1	Failure
6, ST-6	61022	Explorer 13	25 Aug 1961	W	X1	Partial failure
7, ST-7	n/a	P 21	19 Oct 1961	W	X1	Failure Ballistic flight
8, ST-8	n/a	Reentry 1	1 Mar 1962	W	X1A	Ballistic flight
9, ST-9	n/a	P 21A	29 Mar 1962	W	X2	Ballistic flight
10, 111	n/a	Solrad 4B	26 Apr 1962	V	X2	Failure
11, 112	n/a	P35 1	24 May 1962	V	X2M	Failure
12, 117	62039	P35 2 (FTV 3502)	23 Aug 1962	V	X2M	650x858x98.6
13, 114	n/a	Reentry 2	31 Aug 1962	W	X3A	Failure
14, 115	62070	Explorer 16	16 Dec 1962	W	X3
15, 118	62071	Transit 5A-1	19 Dec 1962	V	X3	698x725x90.6
16, 126	63005	P35 3 (FTV 0240)	19 Feb 1963	V	X3M	505x791x100.5
17, 119	n/a	Transit 5A-2	05 Apr 1963	V	X3	Failure
18, 121	n/a	P35 4	26 Apr 1963	V	X2M	Failure
19, 116	n/a	RFD 1	22 May 1963	W	X3	Ballistic flight
20, 120	63022	Transit 5A-3	16 Jun 1963	V	X3	727x757x90.0
21, 113	63026	GRS (CRL 1)	28 Jun 1963	W	X4	411x1311x69.7
22, 110	n/a	Reentry 3	27 Jul 1963	W	X3M	Failure Ballistic flight
23, 132	n/a	P35 5	27 Sep 1963	V	X2B	Failure
24, 122R	63053	Explorer 19	19 Dec 1963	V	X4
25, 127R	64015	Ariel 2	27 Mar 1964	W	X3
26, 125R	64026	Transit 5C-1	04 Jun 1964	V	X4	854x956x90.4
27, 128R	n/a	ESRS (CRL 2)	25 Jun 1964	V	X4	Failure
28, 124R	n/a	SERT 1	20 Jul 1964	W	X4	Ballistic flight
29, 129R	n/a	Reentry 4A	18 Aug 1964	W	X4A	Ballistic flight
30, 134R	64051	Explorer 20	25 Aug 1964	V	X4
31, 130R	n/a	RFD 2	9 Oct 1964	W	X3C	Ballistic flight
32, 123R	64064	Explorer 22	10 Oct 1964	V	X4
33, 133R	64074	Explorer 23	06 Nov 1964	W	X4
34, 135R	64076	A: Explorer 24 B: Explorer 25	21 Nov 1964	V	X4
35, 137R	64084	San Marco 1	15 Dec 1964	W	X4
36, 136R	65032	Explorer 27	29 Apr 1965	W	X4
37, 131R	65063	Secor 05	10 Aug 1965	W	B
38, 138R	65093	Explorer 30	19 Nov 1965	W	X4
39, 139R	65101	FR 1	06 Dec 1965	V	X4
40, 140C	65109	Transit-O 6	22 Dec 1965	V	A	909x1086x89.1
41, 142C	66005	Transit-O 7	28 Jan 1966	V	A	861x1217x89.7
42, 141C	n/a	Reentry 4B	9 Feb 1966	W	X4A	Ballistic flight
43, 143C	66024	Transit-O 8	26 Mar 1966	V	A	891x1128x89.7
44, 145C	66034	OV 3-1	22 Apr 1966	V	B
45, 146C	66041	Transit-O 9	19 May 1966	V	A	863x980x90.0
46, 147C	66052	OV 3-4	10 Jun 1966	W	B
47, 148C	66070	OV 3-3	04 Aug 1966	V	B
48, 149C	66076	Transit-O 10	18 Aug 1966	V	A	1056x1101x88.9
49, 150C	66097	OV 3-2	28 Oct 1966	V	B
50, 151C	n/a	OV3-5	31 Jan 1967	V	B	Failure
51, 154C	67034	Transit-O 12	14 Apr 1967	V	A	1053x1083x90.2
52, 153C	67038	San Marco 2	26 Apr 1967	S	B
53, 155C	67042	Ariel 3	05 May 1967	V	A
54, 156C	67048	Transit-O 13	18 May 1967	V	A	1074x1116x89.3
55, 156C	n/a	Esro 2A (Iris 1)	29 May 1967	V	B	Failure
56, 157C	67092	Transit-O 14	25 Sep 1967	V	A	1041x1116x89.3
57, 159C	n/a	RAM C1	19 Oct 1967	W	B	Ballistic flight
58, 158C	67120	OV 3-6 (Atcos 2)	05 Dec 1967	V	B	412x439x90.7
59, 162C	68012	Transit-O 18	02 Mar 1968	V	A	1035x1139x90.0
60, 160C	68017	Solrad 09	05 Mar 1968	W	B	Partial failure
61, 160C	n/a	Reentry 5	27 Apr 1968	W	X5A	Ballistic flight
62, 164C	68041	Esro 2B	17 may 1968	V
63, 165C	68066	A: Explorer 39 B: Explorer 40	08 Aug 1968	V	B
64, 168C	n/a	RAM C2	22 Aug 1968	W	B	Ballistic flight
65, 167C	68084	Esro 1A	03 Oct 1968	V	B
66, 172C	69083	Esro 1B	01 Oct 1969	V	B
67, 169C	69097	Azur	08 Nov 1969	V	B
68, 176C	70067	Transit-O 19	27 Aug 1970	V	A	954x1221x90.2
69, 171C	n/a	RAM C3	30 Sep 1970	W	B	Ballistic flight
70, 174C	70094	A: OFO B: RM 1	09 Nov 1970	W	B
71, 175C	70107	Explorer 42	12 Dec 1970	S	B
72, 173C	71036	San Marco 3	24 Apr 1971	S	B
73, 144CR	n/a	PAET	20 Jun 1971	W	B	Ballistic flight
74, 177C	71058	Solrad 10	08 Jul 1971	W	B
75, 180C	71071	Eole	16 Aug 1971	W	B1
76, 166CR	n/a	GRP	20 Sep 1971	W	B	Ballistic flight
77, 163CR	71096	Explorer 45	15 Nov 1971	S	B
78, 183C	71109	Ariel 4	11 Dec 1971	V	B1
79, 184C	72061	Explorer 46	13 Aug 1972	W	D1
80, 182C	72069	Triad 1 (TIP 1)	02 Sep 1972	V	B1	716x863x90.1
81, 170CR	72091	Explorer 48	15 Nov 1972	S	D1
82, 185C	72092	Esro 4	22 Nov 1972	V	D1
83, 181C	72100	Aeros 1	16 Dec 1972	V	D1
84, 178C	73081	Transit-O 20	30 Oct 1973	V	A1	907x1136x90.2
85, 190C	74009	San Marco 4	18 Feb 1974	S	D1
86, 188C	74013	Miranda	09 Mar 1974	V	D1
87, 191C	74040	Explorer 52	03 Jun 1974	V	E1
88, 186C	74055	Aeros 2	16 Jul 1974	V	D1
89, 189C	74070	ANS	30 Aug 1974	V	D1
90, 187C	74077	Ariel 5	15 Oct 1974	S	B1
91, 194	75037	Explorer 53	07 May 1975	S	F1
92, 195C	75099	Triad 2 (TIP 2)	12 Oct 1975	V	D1	362x705x90.7
93, 196C	n/a	Explorer [56] Explorer [57]	05 Dec 1975	V	F1	Failure
94, 179CR	76047	Wideband (P76 5)	22 May 1976	V	B1	995x1059x99.6
95, 193C	n/a	Gravity probe	18 Jun 1976	W	D1	Ballistic flight
96, 197C	76089	Triad 3 (TIP 3)	01 Sep 1976	V	D1	475x930x89.9
97, 200C	77106	Transat (O 11)	28 Oct 1977	V	D1	1000x1000x89.9
98, 201C	78041	AEM 1	26 Apr 1978	V	D1
99, 202C	79013	AEM 2	18 Feb 1979	W	D1
100, 198C	79047	Ariel 6	02 Jun 1979	W	D1
101, 203C	79094	AEM 3	30 Oct 1979	V	G1
102, 192C	81044	Nova 1	15 May 1981	V	G1
103, 205C	83063	Hilat (T83 1)	27 Jun 1983	V	G1	770x838x82.0
104, 208C	84110	Nova 2	12 Oct 1984	V	G1
105, 209C	85066	Transit-O 24 Transit-O 30	03 Aug 1985	V	G1	1000x1260x89.8
106, 207C	85114	ITV 1/2	13 Dec 1985	W	G1	316x770x37.0
107, 199C	86088	Polar Bear (P87 1)	14 Nov 1986	V	G1	1170x1180x90.0
108, 204C	87080	Transit-O 27 Transit-O 29	16 Sep 1987	V	G1	1020x1180x90.0
109, 209C	88026	San Marco 5	25 Mar 1988	S	G1
110, 211C	88033	Transit-O 23 Transit-O 32	25 Apr 1988	V	G1	1020x1300x90.0
111, 213C	88052	Nova 3	16 Jun 1988	V	G1
112, 214C	88074	Transit-O 25 Transit-O 31	25 Aug 1988	V	G1	1030x1180x90.0
113, 212C	90043	Macsat 1 Macsat 2	09 May 1990	V	G1	610x770x90.0
114, 216C	91045	REX 1 (P89-1A; 86 kg)	29 Jun 1991	V	G1	770x870x89.6
115, 215C	92038	Sampex	03 Jul 1992	V	G1
116, 210C	92078	MSTI 1	21 Nov 1992	V	G1
117, 217C	93041	Radcal	25 Jun 1993	V	G1
118, 218C	94028	MSTI 2	09 May 1994	V	G1

Notes: Launch site: C for Cape Canaveral, V for Vandenberg, W for Wallops Island and S for San Marco

[Gunter Krebs adds:]
Although mostly neglected and not part of the "official" launch history, the Blue-Scout-1 and Blue Scout-2 versions. The main difference was, that the Blue-Scouts had an different aft section of the first stage as they stood on the launch pad (the "normal" Scout was suspended on a launch tower). The Blue-Scout-1 was a 3 stage version of the Scout-X1, the Blue Scout-2 was mostly identical to the Scout-X1.

The Blue-Scout-2 made one ill-fated attempt to launch a satellite from Cape Canaveral:
01.11.1961 Mercury-MS 1
The Mercury-MS 1 payload was a small communication satellite to simmulate the telemetry from a manned Mercury capsule. No replacement was launched.

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