SCOUT LAUNCH VEHICLE PROGRAM FACT SHEET 
	and Information About the Last Launch of a Scout Vehicle

	Since 1959, NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, 
has managed one of the nation's most successful and reliable launch 
vehicles, known as Scout.	
	Scout, an acronym for Solid Controlled Orbital Utility Test system, 
is a four-stage solid fuel satellite system capable of launching a 385-
pound satellite into a 500-mile orbit.  There have been 113 Scout 
launches, and its overall 96 percent success rate has earned this 
workhorse a spot in the National Air and Space Museum, where it stands 
beside other veterans of America's space program, such as Jupiter, 
Aerobee and Vanguard rockets.
	Scout's honor roll includes 23 satellites launched for international 
space organizations.  Payloads have been launched for the European Space 
Research Organization, for Germany, for the Netherlands, for France, for 
Italy, and for the United Kingdom.  Through the years, Scout has launched 
94 orbital missions, (27 Navy navigational and 67 scientific satellites), 
seven probe missions and 12 reentry missions.
	On January 1, 1991, after more than 30 years, NASA Langley 
transferred the management of the Scout Project to the NASA Goddard 
Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland.   
	Those who have worked on the Scout program have made a unique 
contribution to the U.S. space program.  They have created a launch vehicle 
system that set a standard for simplicity, productivity and reliability.  
They did it by establishing uncompromising standards of exactness and by 
an unwavering pursuit of excellence.  In these accomplishments, they 
created an atmosphere of teamwork and mutual respect that those who 
worked on Scout will never forget.    
	The Scout team has consisted not only of NASA Langley employees 
but a group of employees from the LTV Missiles and Electronics Group of 
Dallas, prime contractor for the development of Scout systems.  In 1959, 
Langley Research Center awarded the contract to LTV to develop the 
airframe and launcher.  This began a partnership between NASA Langley 
and LTV that has lasted for over thirty years.  Scout's reliability stems 
from a sense of teamwork and cooperation between government agency and 
contractor.  Together, these people shared success and failure--some of 
whom spent an entire career on the project.  Ultimately, Scout is a vehicle 
that proved itself, over and over, to be reliable and dependable. 		
	Scout's reliability also stems from standardized procedures and 
configuration control and from its simple, old-fashioned technology.  The 
vehicle was built with off-the shelf hardware.  Designers selected from 
an inventory of solid-fuel rocket motors produced for military programs:  
the first stage motor was a combination of the Jupiter Senior and the 
Navy Polaris; the second stage came from the Army Sergeant; and the third 
and fourth stage motors were designed by Langley engineers who adapted a 
version of the Navy Vanguard.  The heatshield and fins are insulated with 
cork.  The guidance system uses simple gryos that cannot be 
reprogrammed after launch.  But this old-fangled technology makes Scout 
reliable and predictable.
	Since its early development, the configuration of Scout has 
continued to evolve.  Each of the motors has been upgraded at least twice, 
and improvements in rocket engine design have enabled the rocket to carry 
larger payloads.  Even so, the current Scout G-1 configuration is very 
similar in appearance to that of the original vehicle--a testimony to the 
soundness of the original design.
	Scout is 76 feet long, 45 inches in diameter and weighs 48,600 
pounds.  Its four solid propulsion rockets are joined by transition sections 
containing guidance, ignition, spin up motors and separation 
instrumentation necessary for flight.
	The first stage is the Algol.  It is 30 feet long and 45 inches in 
diameter.  The motor burns for an average of 82 seconds with a maximum 
thrust of 140,000 pounds.  At the bottom of this motor are the first stage 
altitude control jet vanes and fin tips, which steer the vehicle during 
initial launch.
	The second stage, Castor, is 20 feet long and 30 inches in diameter.  
This stage fires for 41 seconds and develops 60,000 pounds of thrust.
	Stage three rocket motor, the Antares, is 10 feet long and 30 inches 
in diameter.  It burns for 48 seconds at 18,000 pounds of thrust.  The 
second and third stage control is provided by hydrogen peroxide jets.  
	The fourth stage, Altair, is a mere five feet long and 20 inches in 
diameter.  It burns for 34 seconds and develops 6000 pounds of thrust.  Its 
control is provided by spin stabilization.  
	The heat shield covering the fourth stage and payload section is 
made of cork and fiberglass laminate.							
	Launch sites for this nation's workhorse are located at the NASA
Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Virginia; at the Western Test Range,
Vandenberg Air Force Base, California; and at Kenya, Africa.
	The NASA space program has given us images that have become 
imprinted on the national consciousness as icons of success.  Here is one 
more to consider:  our nation's workhorse--Scout.

5/06/94:  SCOUT LAUNCH VEHICLE TO RETIRE AFTER 34 YEARS OF SERVICE

Don Savage                                                                                            
May 6, 1994
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

Fred A. Brown
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Keith Henry
Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va. 

RELEASE: 94-72

        NASA has scheduled the 118th and final flight of the Solid Controlled
Orbital Utility Test (SCOUT) launch vehicle for Friday, May 6, from the Western
Test Range, Vandenberg Air Force Base, Lompoc, Calif. The 10-minute launch
window opens at 10:45 p.m.  EDT.

        SCOUT has been a reliable rocket for nearly 34 years, flying its first
mission on July 1, 1960, and becoming one of NASA's most successful launch
vehicles.  SCOUT's reliability for the last 26 years has been 98.3 percent and,
since 1976, its launch success rate has been 100 percent.  According to project
officials, this reliability can be traced to its use of standardized launch and
manufacturing procedures and the incorporation of off-the-shelf technology.

        Although it is the smallest NASA launch vehicle capable of orbiting
satellites, SCOUT has been a real workhorse for the space agency.  Due to its
extensive contributions to the space program and the limited publicity it has
received, SCOUT has been called, "the unsung hero of space."

        The SCOUT program was managed from 1958 through Dec. 1990 by NASA's
Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va. Program management was transferred to
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., in Jan. 1991.

        The last SCOUT will launch a Miniature Sensor Technology Integration
(MSTI) satellite.  The satellite, designated MSTI-2, will conduct tracking and
Earth- observation experiments.  Designed and built by Phillips Laboratory at
Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., the MSTI program is in support of the Ballistic
Missile Defense Organization's Theater Missile Defense Directive. A SCOUT
launch vehicle launched the first MSTI satellite in Nov. 1992.

        This launch vehicle had its beginnings as early as 1957.  The U. S.
needed a relatively inexpensive, quickly produced rocket to launch small
research experiments, and Langley engineers were asked to design it.  Their
goal was to provide a launch vehicle capable of performing a variety of probe,
re-entry and orbital missions with minimum preparation time.

        The conception was complete in 1958, and Chance Vought Aircraft (now
Loral Vought Systems) was placed under contract in March 1959 to build SCOUT
vehicles.  This was the beginning of a government/contractor relationship which
has lasted more than 35 years.

        SCOUT was America's first solid-fuel launch vehicle capable of orbiting
a satellite.  The standard SCOUT launch vehicle is a solid-propellant,
four-stage booster system, approximately 75 feet (23 meters) long with a launch
weight of 47,398 pounds (21,500 kilograms).

        Unlike most of NASA's larger expendable rockets, the SCOUT is assembled
and the payload is integrated and checked-out in the horizontal position prior
to launch.  SCOUT's first-stage motor was based on an earlier version of the
Navy's Polaris missile motor.  The second-stage motor was developed from the
Army's Sergeant surface-to-surface missile, and the third- and fourth-stage
motors were adapted by Langley from the Navy's Vanguard missile.

        The first SCOUT was launched from Goddard's Wallops Flight Facility,
Wallops Island, Va., on July 1, 1960.  The rocket carried a 193-pound
(88-kilogram) payload as a probe test.  On February 16, 1961, Scout became the
first solid-fuel rocket to place a payload into orbit.  The vehicle carried a
96-pound (44- kilogram) NASA atmospheric physics payload into orbit without
incident.

        Two launch sites were added in subsequent years.  One, at the Western
Test Range at Vandenberg Air Force Base, was added in 1962.  Another was built
on Italy's unique sea-based San Marco platform off the east coast of Kenya,
Africa, the site of nine successful equatorial missions since 1967.

        SCOUT capability grew dramatically over the years.  Originally able to
place a 131-pound (59-kilogram) payload in a nominal 345-mile (552-kilometer)
circular orbit, SCOUT performance was improved, increasing its capability to
put a 458- pound (208-kilogram) payload into the same orbit.  The heaviest
satellite ever placed in orbit by SCOUT was an Italian payload that weighed
more than 600 pounds (270 kilograms) and was launched out of Africa. SCOUT
increased its load- carrying capability 350 percent over that of the original
vehicle with little increase in the size of its stages.

        The SCOUT program has made possible important contributions to
knowledge of space, not only for the U. S. but also for a number of foreign
nations, including Italy, Great Britain, Germany, France, the Netherlands and
the multi- national European Space Agency. These contributions have been in
navigation, astronomy, geodesy, meteoroid environment, re-entry materials,
biology, spacecraft technology and applications.

        To commemorate SCOUT's contributions to the American space program,
there is a SCOUT rocket on display in the Smithsonian Institution's National
Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C.

-end-

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