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ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1962 



STATE OF THE ART AND PROSPECTS 

 In 19G2 most large space boosters used liquid propellants with ex- 

 haust velocities of less than 10,000 feet per second. Our largest opera- 

 tional vehicle, the xitlas-Agena, can place over 5,000 pounds in orbit 

 compared to 14,000 pounds for the Russian vehicle, which is therefore 

 probably a similar system of two or three times the size of the Atlas. 

 A high-energy liquid propellant (hydrogen -oxygen) upper stage 

 (Centaur) is being developed for the Atlas which will double the 

 orbital payload and allow sending appreciable payloads to the moon 

 and planets. Table 5 presents mformation about vehicles in use or 

 being developed by the NASA. 



Table 5. — NASA space vehicles 



Larger engines and vehicles are being developed for the IQGO's to im- 

 plement the manned lunar exploration program. The Saturn C-1 

 first stage, which had successful flight tests in 1962 uses eight RP-oxy- 

 gen engines giving a total thrust of 1.3 million pounds. With non- 

 optimum high-energy upper stages it will be able to place 20,000 pounds 

 in orbit. The optimized Saturn C-2, which was to have used this first 

 stage and would have put 50,000 pounds in orbit, has been dropped in 

 favor of a much larger advanced Saturn C-5 vehicle. Its first stage 

 will be powered by five F-1 engines with a thrust of 1.5 million pounds 

 each. This vehicle, with high-energy chemical upper stages, will 

 place 200,000 pounds in orbit, and hopefully be capable of manned 

 lunar missions. Nuclear propulsion will probably be first tested and 

 used in an advanced Saturn upper stage. With experience gained in 

 the military rocket programs the solid propellant rocket groups have 

 been working on larger engines for use as boosters for space vehicles. 

 A veliicle is under development which has two 120-inch-diameter solid 

 rockets strapped in parallel to a Titan missile for space applications 

 with payloads comparable to those of the Saturn C-1. 



Thus in the 1960's the advances in the chemical propulsion field will 

 be principally in switching to the high-energy propellants in upper 

 stages and making larger sizes of the present vehicle types. Nuclear 

 propulsion is in the early stages of engine and vehicle development. 



