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111-613: Development of the R-14 began by directive on 2 July 1958. The preliminary design was completed in December 1958, with flight tests beginning in June 1960 and completed in February 1961. The missile was accepted into service on 24 April 1961; initial operational capability for the first division of four launchers was achieved on 31 December 1961, with the first regiment organized the next day. By

222-585: A 26 November 1956 memorandum, recently appointed US Secretary of Defense Charles Erwin Wilson attempted to end the fighting. His solution was to limit the Army to weapons with 200-mile (320 km) range, and those involved in surface-to-air defense to only 100 miles (160 km). The memo also placed limits on Army air operations, severely limiting the weight of the aircraft it was allowed to operate. To some degree this simply formalized what had largely already been

333-782: A 55 foot (17 m) version, finally settled on the 58 foot (18 m) version. On 2 December 1955, the secretaries of the Army and Navy publicly announced the dual Army–Navy program to create a land- and sea-based MRBM. In April 1956, as part of a widespread effort to assign names to various missile projects, the Army's effort was given the name "Jupiter" and the Air Force's became "Thor". Redstone provided an accuracy of 980 feet (300 m) at its maximum range, which, when combined with its large warhead, allowed it to attack hard targets like protected airbases, bridges, command and control sites, as well as other strategic targets like railway marshaling yards and pre-attack concentration areas. This

444-554: A 7 lb (3.2 kg) American-born rhesus monkey , Able, and an 11 oz (310 g) South American squirrel monkey , Baker . The monkeys rode in the nose cone of the missile to an altitude of 300 miles (480 km) and a distance of 1,500 miles (2,400 km) down the Atlantic Missile Range from Cape Canaveral. They withstood accelerations of 38  g (370 m/s ) and were weightless for about nine minutes. A top speed of 10,000 mph (4.5 km/s)

555-518: A Jupiter center section until discovering a suitable type for both the LOX and fuel tanks. The third Jupiter, also numbered AM-1, was quickly equipped with the baffles and launched on 31 May, slightly over a month after AM-1B, traveling a full 1,247 nautical miles (2,309 km; 1,435 mi) downrange. This version had a slightly improved S-3 engine with 139,000 pounds-force (620,000 N) thrust. AM-2 flew from LC-26A on 28 August, and successfully tested

666-611: A conceptual design that would take a Maritime Administration type C4-S-1a hull and convert it into a Jupiter missile launch ship, which was given the hull symbols YAG-58 then EAG-155 ; the conversion would later be canceled. The requirement for shipboard storage and launching dictated the size and shape of the Jupiter. The original Army design was 92 feet (28 m) long and 95 inches (2,400 mm) in diameter. The Navy stated they were not interested in anything longer than 50 feet (15 m). The ABMA team responded by increasing

777-403: A conical nozzle and 135,000 lbf (600 kN) of thrust. By early 1958, this had been replaced by an improved model with a bell-shaped nozzle see and 150,000 lbf (670 kN) of thrust. The fully developed Thor IRBM had 162,000 lbf (720 kN) of thrust. Thor was test launched from LC-17 at Cape Canaveral Missile Annex . The compressed development schedule meant that plans for

888-499: A crane on the movable gantry. Just to the north of the launch area was the Air Force's LC-17 for Thor, and LC-18 used for Thor and the Navy's Vanguard . After the Army's head start, the Air Force had since caught up and attempted its first Thor launch on 26 January 1957, which ended with the missile exploding on the launch pad. Jupiter test flights commenced with the launch of AM-1A (ABMA Missile 1A) on 1 March 1957 from LC-5. This missile

999-481: A decision to organize mobile ballistic missile units would in logic have led to transferring the operational use of the weapon back to the Army – where it should have been all the time. To offset the possibility of air attack, the systems were upgraded to allow a launch within 15 minutes of a launch order. Rocketdyne tested the first S-3 engine at their Santa Susana, California facilities in November 1955. A mock-up

1110-519: A dramatic improvement over the Redstone's roughly 200 miles (320 km). As Rocketdyne continued working on the LR89, it appeared that it could be improved to increase thrust over the promised 120,000 pounds-force (530,000 N). In 1954, the Army asked Rocketdyne to provide a similar design with a thrust of 135,000 pounds-force (600,000 N). During this same period, the weight of nuclear warheads

1221-583: A heat shield test. The MJ-2 flight was planned as a maximum dynamic pressure qualification test of the production Mercury spacecraft with a chimpanzee on board. In April 1958, under the command of President Eisenhower , the U.S. Department of Defense notified the Air Force it had tentatively planned to deploy the first three Jupiter squadrons (45 missiles) in France. However, in June 1958 the new French President Charles de Gaulle refused to accept basing any Jupiter missiles in France. This prompted U.S. to explore

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1332-587: A launch site in the UK. The initial design studies were headed by Cmdr. Robert Truax (US Navy) and Dr. Adolph K. Thiel ( Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation , formerly of Redstone Arsenal and previously of Nazi Germany ). They refined the specifications to an IRBM with: Thor had vernier engines for roll control flanking the main engine, similar to the Atlas vernier engines on the sides of the propellant tanks. On 30 November 1955, three companies were given one week to bid on

1443-495: A near repeat performance of the 5 November failure happened when Missile 149 lost control and was destroyed 40 seconds into launch. After a run of successful launches during the first half of 1959, Missile 191, the first to be launched by a Royal Air Force crew, suffered another control malfunction while being launched from VAFB. This time, the missile's pitch and roll program failed to activate and it continued flying straight up. Launch crews initially did nothing as they reasoned that

1554-401: A new solid fuel rocket for spinup, replacing the older hydrogen peroxide model. AM-9 was launched on 10 October, the first Jupiter to carry the fully functional turbine exhaust roll control system. The flight failed however; a pinhole leak in the thrust transducer area started a thrust section fire and loss of vehicle control. The missile tumbled and broke up at T+49 seconds. Afterwards, there

1665-419: A small explosion went off in the liquid oxygen (LOX) pump, and as the missile sat there the LOX boiled off and threatened to burst the tanks. The day was saved when the foreman, Paul Kennedy, ran to the missile and connected a pressure line to drain the oxygen buildup in the tank. The problem was later traced to the lubricant used in the pump, which tended to burst into flames in contact with LOX. A new lubricant

1776-1083: A space launch vehicle . It was the first in a large family of space launch vehicles—the Delta rockets. The last remaining direct descendant of the Thor, the Delta II , was retired in 2018, and the Delta IV was based on mostly new technology, unlike the Delta II. The last rocket of the Delta rocket family flew on 9 April 2024. United States Air Force Royal Air Force operated a maximum of 60 missiles, with each squadron controlling 3 missiles Family: Thor IRBM, Thor DM-18 (single stage LV); Thor DM-19 (rocket 1st stage), Thor DM-21 (rocket 1st stage), Thor DSV-2 (suborbital launch vehicle), Thor DSV-2J (anti-ballistic missile), Thor DSV-2U (orbital launch vehicle). Related lists PGM-19 Jupiter The PGM-19 Jupiter

1887-561: A stop-gap measure, and within three years of inception the first of 20 Royal Air Force Thor squadrons became operational in the UK. The UK deployment carried the codename ' Project Emily '. One of the advantages of the design was that, unlike the Jupiter MRBM , the Thor could be carried by the USAF's cargo aircraft of the time, which made its deployment more rapid. The launch facilities were not transportable and had to be built on site. Once

1998-558: A strategic exchange. This would especially be true if the Army launched a long-range weapon like Jupiter, which could reach cities in the Soviet Union and could not immediately be distinguished as attacking a military or civilian target. They suggested that any such launch would trigger a strategic response, and as such, the Army should not be given any long-range weapons. However, as von Braun's team went from success to success, and with Atlas still years from operational deployment, it

2109-476: A submarine or two through accidental explosions. But, then, there are some of us who enjoy, or at lease [sic] are acclimated to, the idea of risking our lives." All of this changed radically in the summer of 1956, when Project Nobska brought together leading scientists to consider antisubmarine warfare. As part of this workshop, Edward Teller stated that by 1963 a 1 megaton warhead would be reduced to only 600 pounds (270 kg). Rocketry experts at

2220-582: A very high altitude and being visible for hundreds of miles, the cloud attracted widespread attention and was published by the news media. The cloud was featured on the cover of Science Magazine in April 1963, Weatherwise Magazine in May 1963, and had a full page image published in the May issue of Life Magazine . Prof. James MacDonald at the University of Arizona Institute for Atmospheric Physics investigated

2331-512: The Atlas bunker had to be used to allow the completion of the facility in time, with launchpad LC-17B completed just in time for the first test flight. Missile 101, the first flight-ready Thor, arrived at Cape Canaveral in October 1956. It was erected at LC-17B and underwent several practice propellant loading/unloading exercises, a static firing test, and a month-long delay while a defective relay

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2442-588: The Killian Committee championed the cause. The Committee took up the concept, and in September 1955 released a report calling for the development of a sea-based missile system. The Navy's interest in missiles had been greatly increased with the August 1955 appointment of Admiral Arleigh Burke to replace Carney. Burke was convinced the Navy had to get into the missile field as rapidly as possible, and

2553-577: The PGM-11 Redstone missile, the US's first nuclear ballistic missile. While it was entering service, Wernher von Braun 's Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) team at Redstone Arsenal began to consider an upgraded version using the LR89 rocket engine being developed by Rocketdyne for the Air Force's Atlas missile project. Using the LR89 and adding a second stage would allow the new design to reach 1,000 nautical miles (1,900 km; 1,200 mi),

2664-738: The Polaris missile submarine base at Rota, Spain. Production of the missile was initially done at Factory 586 in Dnepropetrovsk and Factory 1001 in Krasnoyarsk , with the RD-216 engine built only at Factory 586. From 1962 onward, production was shifted exclusively to Aviation Factory 166 in Omsk . Prior to the onset of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis , the Soviet Union planned to deploy two regiments with 32 R-14 IRBMs and 16 launchers to Cuba. By

2775-569: The Thor and later Delta families of space launch vehicles used boosters derived from the initial Thor missile, and continued on into the 21st century. Fearful that the Soviet Union would deploy a long-range ballistic missile before the U.S., in January 1956 the USAF began developing the Thor, a 1,500-mile (2,400 km) intermediate-range ballistic missile. The program proceeded quickly as

2886-546: The United States Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville , Alabama. Mercury-Jupiter was a proposed suborbital launch configuration consisting of a Jupiter missile carrying a Mercury capsule. Two flights were planned in support of Project Mercury . On July 1, 1959, less than a year after the October, 1958 program start date, the flights were canceled due to budget constraints. The MJ-1 flight would have been

2997-457: The 17 August launch of the world's first lunar probe on Thor-Able 127 ended in an explosion due to a turbopump failure. A month later, Atlas 6B also suffered a turbopump failure and the Air Force gave in and agreed to replace the turbopumps in all of their missiles, after which there were no more launch failures due to a turbopump problem. Five successful Thor tests were conducted in June–July 1958,

3108-502: The ABMA team, under the direction of Fritz Mueller , could improve on that. This led to a period in which "The Army would lay down a particular accuracy, and wait for our arguments whether it was possible. We had to promise a lot, but were fortunate." This process ultimately delivered a superior design intended to provide 0.5 miles (0.80 km) accuracy at the full range, an order of magnitude better than Redstone and four times better than

3219-652: The AC Spark Plug inertial guidance system began 7 December with the first successful flight on 19 December 1957. The operational variant of the Thor, the DM-18A, began testing in the autumn of 1958, but Missile 138 (5 November) went out of control shortly after liftoff and had to be destroyed. Nonetheless, Thor was declared operational and testing now began at Vandenberg Air Force Base on the West Coast when Missile 151 flew successfully on 16 December. On 30 December,

3330-546: The Army as the NAA-150-200, became much better known by its Rocketdyne model number, S-3. Around the same time, the US Navy was looking for ways to join the nuclear club, and had been focusing mostly on cruise missiles and similar systems. Some consideration had been given to the use of ballistic missiles on ships, but Admiral Hyman Rickover , "father" of the nuclear submarine, was skeptical that this could be done, and

3441-481: The Earth's rotation would gradually take it away from land and they wished to continue collecting data as long as possible. Eventually though, they became nervous about it exploding or pitching over, so the destruct command was sent around 50 seconds into launch. High-altitude wind caused debris to land in the town of Orcutt near the base. After Thor 203 repeated the same failure four weeks later, an investigation found that

R-14 Chusovaya - Misplaced Pages Continue

3552-509: The IRBM program was a poorly conceived idea as it depended on the cooperation of NATO allies, most of whom were not willing to have nuclear missiles on their soil, and was also surpassed by the ICBM program, yet continued anyway for political reasons and a desire to keep the workforce at their respective assembly plants employed. Thor's lasting legacy was not as a missile, but its use as the basis for

3663-540: The Pacific Ocean and had the ability to destroy satellites in low Earth orbit. With prior warning of an impending launch, they could destroy a Soviet spy satellite soon after orbital insertion. Development of the Thor was initiated by the USAF in 1954. The goal was a missile system that could deliver a nuclear warhead over a distance of 1,150 to 2,300 miles (1,850 to 3,700 km) with a CEP of 2 miles (3.2 km). This range would allow Moscow to be attacked from

3774-607: The R-14 was equipped with a smaller second stage to create the Kosmos-1 (65S3) booster and eight were flown over the next year from LC-41 at Baikonur. By 1966, the fully operational Kosmos-3 (11K65) booster was in use, but it was flown only four times before being succeeded by the definitive Kosmos-3M (11K65M) launcher, used for assorted light civilian and military satellites, most being launched from Plesetsk Cosmodrome (only some of them were flown from Kapustin Yar ). This launch vehicle

3885-507: The Range Safety Officer could issue the flight termination command. Flying debris struck and damaged a Juno II on the adjacent LC-5. This particular launch was carrying a biological nose cone with mice and other specimens (which did not survive). Through the early 1960s, a number of Jupiters were launched by the forces of other countries, as well as the Air Force, as part of ongoing combat training. The last launch of this sort

3996-522: The Thor/Delta space launcher family into the 21st century. On 28 February 1963, a Thor rocket carrying a spy satellite into orbit was launched from Vandenberg Airforce Base. The rocket went off course and mission control detonated the rocket at an altitude of 27 mi (44 km) before it could reach orbit. The rocket detonation produced a large circular cloud that appeared over the southwestern United States. Due to its mysterious nature, appearing at

4107-517: The UK, would likely have more warning of an impending attack. This is precisely the reason that the Army spent considerable effort on making Jupiter mobile, in order to make surprise attacks difficult without prior aerial reconnaissance missions. However, in November 1958, the Air Force decided Jupiter would be launched from fixed emplacements. Army General Maxwell Taylor argued this was done deliberately, noting that: ...a mobile missile needs Army-type troops to move, emplace, protect and fire it...

4218-620: The USAF briefly considered training its Jupiter crews at Vandenberg AFB , California, it later decided to conduct all of its training at Huntsville . In June and September of the same year the Air Force activated two more squadrons, the 865th and 866th. In April 1959, the secretary of the Air Force issued implementing instructions to USAF to deploy two Jupiter squadrons to Italy. The two squadrons, totaling 30 missiles, were deployed at 10 sites in Italy from 1961 to 1963. They were operated by Italian Air Force crews, but USAF personnel controlled arming

4329-541: The USAF's General Schreiver rejected the idea of sending Thor and Atlas missiles back to the factory so as to not delay the testing program. Instead, in-field modifications to pressurize the turbopump gearboxes and use an oil with a different viscosity that was less prone to foaming were conducted. Modified bearing retainers were not installed. Subsequently, six consecutive Thor and Atlas launches failed during February–April 1958, several due to turbopump problems. The following four months did not include any turbopump failures, but

4440-481: The backup radio guidance system, and General Electric the nose cone/reentry vehicle. Douglas' proposal included choosing bolted tank bulkheads (as opposed to the initially suggested welded ones) and a tapered fuel tank for improved aerodynamics. The engine was a direct descendant of the Atlas MA-3 booster engine, with removal of one thrust chamber and a rerouting of the plumbing to allow the engine to fit within

4551-459: The best INS designs being used by the Air Force. The system was so accurate that a number of observers expressed their skepticism about the Army's goals, with the WSEG suggesting they were hopelessly optimistic. The Air Force was dead set against Jupiter. They argued that nuclear weapons were not simply new artillery, and that their employment would immediately trigger a response that might result in

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4662-491: The case in practice, but Jupiter fell outside the range limits and the Army was forced to hand them to the Air Force. The Air Force, of course, had no interest in taking over a weapon system they had long argued was not needed. However, ARPA's studies clearly showed it was an excellent system, and as it was ready to enter production, any Air Force thoughts about canceling it were immediately quashed. New orders for 32 prototypes and 62 operational missiles were soon placed, bringing

4773-440: The cause of the failure. After the first Thor-Able launch failed six months later due to a seized turbopump, it was concluded that a similar failure had occurred on 108. However, 108 did not have sufficient instrumentation to determine the exact nature of the failure. The final three Thor tests during 1957 were all successful. 1958 began with back-to-back failures. Thor 114 was destroyed by Range Safety 150 seconds into launch when

4884-570: The confines of a submarine. By 1956, the Polaris program was proposed instead, which featured a solid-fueled SLBM that was much lighter and safer to store. The Navy quickly switched to Polaris and dropped Jupiter. With two IRBMs of nearly identical capabilities, it seemed obvious that only one of the two would ultimately achieve operational status, resulting in a competition between the Army and Air Force. Jupiter's testing program began two months after Thor's and proceeded more smoothly. Accidents such as

4995-498: The culprit was a safety wire that had been meant to prevent the control tape in the programmer from inadvertently coming loose during vehicle assembly. The wire would ordinarily be cut after installation of the programmer in the missile, but Douglas technicians had forgotten this important step, thus the tape could not be spooled and the pitch and roll sequence did not activate. Another 23 Thor missile tests were carried out during 1959, with only one failure, when Missile 185 on 16 December,

5106-492: The culprit. On 22 April, Missile 117, carrying the first Able upper stage , lost thrust and broke up at T+146 seconds due to a turbopump failure. The Jupiter, Thor, and Atlas missiles all used a variant of the Rocketdyne LR-79 engine and all three suffered launch failures due to a marginal turbopump design. There were two separate problems with the pumps. The first was the discovery during testing at Huntsville that

5217-436: The diameter to 105 inches (2,700 mm). This precluded it from being carried aboard contemporary cargo aircraft , limiting it to sea and road. Even with this change, they were unable to reduce its length enough to suit the Navy. They suggested that they begin with a 60 foot (18 m) long version and then scale it down as improvements in the engines were worked into the design. This was rejected, and after briefly considering

5328-592: The end of 1962 two regiments were fully operational in Ukraine and Latvia, with later surface launch pad sites in Kaliningrad and Belarus. A regiment consisted of two divisions, with eight launchers total; by the 1970s one mobile regiment consisted of 3 control units and 4-5 launchers. Upon introduction, the primary targets of R-14s were Thor missile sites in Britain, Jupiter missile sites in Italy and Turkey, and

5439-517: The engine developed several sub-versions, finally reaching the design goal of 150,000 lbf in the S-3D model. The 135,000 pound engine, also used in the first Thor and Atlas tests, had conical thrust chambers, but the 150,000 pound model switched to bell-shaped thrust chambers. Unlike Thor and Atlas, which had two small vernier engines for roll control, Jupiter gimbaled the turbine exhaust. The early test model Jupiters had two small gas jets powered off

5550-522: The explosion of Thor 103 were avoided, and the turbopump issues that plagued early Rocketdyne engines were also resolved in Jupiter much earlier than the Air Force's missiles. The Jupiter program was more successful due to far better testing and preparation, with each missile given a full duration static firing in Huntsville prior to delivery. Thors were given a PFRF (Pre Flight Readiness Firing) prior to launch; these were between 5 and 15 seconds only as

5661-407: The first generation of ICBMs based in the US became operational, Thor missiles were quickly retired. The last of the missiles was withdrawn from operational alert in 1963. A small number of Thors with "Thrust Augmented Delta" boosters and W-49 Mod 6 warheads remained operational in the anti-satellite missile role as Program 437 until April 1975. These missiles were based on Johnston Island in

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5772-464: The first successful flight, which occurred 21 months after the start of the program. No telemetry equipment was included on this missile, with the resulting mass savings allowing a total range of 1,500 miles (2,400 km). Missile 107 (3 October) fell back onto LC-17A and exploded at launch when a gas generator valve failed to open. Missile 108 (11 October) exploded around T+140 seconds without prior warning. Engineers were initially unable to determine

5883-529: The flight was terminated at 35 seconds after an erroneous console readout caused the Range Safety Officer to believe that the missile was headed inland instead of out to sea. The tracking console was found to be wired in reverse. The short flight raised confidence that Thor could fly successfully. The third Thor launch (Missile 103) exploded four minutes before the planned launch after a defective valve allowed LOX tank pressure to build up to unsafe levels. The responsible technicians had also failed to pay attention to

5994-432: The flight. Telemetry data sent back during the flight showed that the monkey survived the 10  g (100 m/s ) of launch, eight minutes of weightlessness and 40  g (390 m/s ) of reentry at 10,000 mph (4.5 km/s). The nose cone sank 1,302 nautical miles (2,411 km) downrange from Cape Canaveral and was not recovered. Another biological flight was launched on 28 May 1959. Aboard Jupiter AM-18 were

6105-522: The four pads. Jupiters were delivered to the Cape strapped to wheeled trailers and flown to the Cape's "Skid Strip" on C-124s. They were then moved to Hangar R at the Cape Industrial Area where the nose cone was mated with the missile, and electrical checkout was performed. It was then moved on the trailer to the pads, about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) south, where they were lifted to vertical by

6216-409: The guidance system lost power and Thor 120's engine shut down slightly under two minutes after liftoff. The telemetry system had experienced a power failure during launch, so the reason for the engine cutoff could not be satisfactorily determined. On 19 April, Missile 121 dropped back onto LC-17B and exploded, putting the pad out of action for three months. A fuel duct collapse was believed to have been

6327-520: The last one carrying a mouse named Wickie on a biological mission; the capsule sank into the ocean and could not be recovered. Thor 126 (26 July) lost thrust 50 seconds into launch when a LOX valve inadvertently closed. The vehicle pitched down and broke up from aerodynamic loads. On 30 July, six Douglas technicians were severely burned, three fatally, when a LOX valve failed at the Thor static test stand in Sacramento, California . Phase II testing with

6438-464: The launching facilities were not designed for a full duration firing. Missile 107 had not been given a PFRF at all and its launch ended in a pad explosion. A static firing stand for Thor tests was only opened in May 1958, at which point the missile's launch record stood at four successes and nine failures, including four launchpad explosions. For comparison, at the end of May 1958 Jupiter had five successes and three failures with no pad explosions. Thanks to

6549-439: The lubricant oil tended to foam at high altitude as the air pressure decreased. The other was that pump shaft vibration from the nearly 10,000 RPM operating speed would cause the bearings to come out of their sockets, resulting in the pump abruptly seizing up. The Army had suspended Jupiter launches for four months until the turbopump issues could be resolved, and as a result no more pump failures affected that program. In contrast,

6660-406: The military. He saw the Navy interest as a reasonable argument to continue the Army project in any event, and on 8 November 1955 approved both programs. The Air Force would develop IRBM No. 1, or SM-75 (for "strategic missile"), the Army would develop their design as IRBM No. 2 or SM-78 . The Navy would develop systems to launch the Army missile from ships and, later, submarines. BuShips completed

6771-439: The missile shelter, essentially a long shed mounted on steel rails, then used a powerful hydraulic launcher-erector to lift the missile to an upright position for launch. Once it was standing on the launch mount, the missile was fueled and could be fired. The entire launch sequence, from starting to roll back the missile shelter through to ignition of the rocket engine and lift-off, took approximately 15 minutes. Main engine burn time

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6882-516: The missile was later renamed Polaris , their first submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM). Rickover, one of the few remaining skeptics, was won over by pointing out that a properly designed submarine was needed specifically for this role, and he would be called upon to produce it. Rickover was from that point on a staunch ally of the program. On 4 October 1957, the Soviets successfully launched Sputnik I from their R-7 Semyorka ICBM. The US

6993-497: The nuclear warheads. The deployed missiles were under command of 36th Strategic Interdiction Air Brigade ( 36ª Aerobrigata Interdizione Strategica , Italian Air Force) at Gioia del Colle Air Base , Italy. In October 1959, the location of the third and final Jupiter MRBM squadron was settled when a government-to-government agreement was signed with Turkey. The U.S. and Turkey concluded an agreement to deploy one Jupiter squadron on NATO's southern flank. One squadron totaling 15 missiles

7104-456: The ocean 149 nautical miles (276 km; 171 mi) downrange. These failures were traced to an inadequate turbopump design that resulted in a string of failures in the Jupiter, Thor, and Atlas programs, all of which used a variant of the same Rocketdyne engine. Testing then paused for five months while Rocketdyne came up with a number of fixes and the Army retrofitted all its Jupiters with the redesigned pumps. In spite of these failures, Jupiter

7215-502: The phenomena and linked it to the Thor rocket launch after contacting military personnel at Vandenberg Air Force Base. When the launch records were later declassified, the United States Air Force released a memo explaining that the cloud was "the result of a military operation", but did not clarify. Despite being retired from deployment as a missile a few years after deployment, the Thor rocket found widespread use as

7326-448: The possibility of deploying the missiles in Italy and Turkey. The Air Force was already implementing plans to base four squadrons (60 missiles) under Project Emily —subsequently redefined as 20 Royal Air Force squadrons each with three missiles—of PGM-17 Thor IRBMs in Britain on airfields stretching from Yorkshire to East Anglia . In 1958, the United States Air Force activated the 864th Strategic Missile Squadron at ABMA. Although

7437-418: The project: Douglas , Lockheed , and North American Aviation . The missile was to use existing technology, skills, abilities, and techniques to speed entry into service. On 27 December 1955, Douglas was awarded the prime contract for the airframe and integration. The Rocketdyne division of North American Aviation was awarded the engine contract, AC Spark Plug the primary inertial guidance system, Bell Labs

7548-412: The same meeting suggested that an intermediate-range weapon carrying one of these weapons could be built using solid propellant . Even in this case, the missile would be much smaller than Jupiter; Jupiter was expected to weigh 160,000 pounds (73,000 kg), while estimates of a solid-fuel missile with similar range were closer to 30,000 pounds (14,000 kg), along with a similar reduction in size which

7659-502: The second RAF launch, broke up due to a control malfunction. The Jupiter missile, a joint effort of Chrysler and the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama , was originally designed to attack high-value targets like airfields, train switching yards and command and control sites with extremely high accuracy. The Redstone team, under the direction of Wernher von Braun , ultimately delivered an inertial guidance system that

7770-553: The separation of the rocket body from the reentry vehicle section before splashing down at 1,460 nautical miles (2,700 km; 1,680 mi). AM-3 flew from LC-26B on 23 October, including the ablative heat shield and the new ST-90 INS. This test flew a planned distance of 1,100 nautical miles (2,000 km; 1,300 mi). AM-3A launched on 26 November and all went according to plan until T+101 seconds when engine thrust abruptly terminated. The missile broke up at T+232 seconds. On 18 December, AM-4 lost thrust T+117 seconds and fell into

7881-441: The smaller LC-4 on 20 April 1955, with the launch of the seventh Redstone from LC-6. Envisioning an extended test program, a second set of similar pads began construction in 1956, LC-26 A and B; the only major difference was the blockhouse was located slightly further away, about 400 feet (120 m). In late 1957 a set of parallel railway tracks running just east of the pads was added, allowing an A-frame gantry to be rolled to any of

7992-480: The smaller Thor thrust section. Engine component tests began in March 1956. The first engineering model engine was available in June, followed by the first flight engine in September. Early Thor engines suffered from foaming turbopump lubricating oil at high altitudes and bearing retention issues, resulting in several launch failures. The initial Thor tests in 1957 used an early version of the Rocketdyne LR-79 engine with

8103-543: The start was that the internecine fighting between the Army and Air Force was leading to significant duplication of effort, with little to show for it. The Department of Defense responded by creating the Advanced Research Projects Agency ( ARPA ), whose initial mission was to look over all of the ongoing projects and select ones based solely on their technical merits. At the same time, the fighting had begun to have negative political effects. In

8214-470: The support of a number of influential theorists, notably Henry Kissinger , and was seized on as a uniquely Army mission. The original goal for the new longer-range design was to match Redstone's accuracy at the Jupiter's much-extended range. That is, if Redstone could reach 980 ft (300 m) at 200 miles (320 km), the new design would provide a circular error probable on the order of 4.3 miles (7 km). As development continued, it became clear

8325-442: The tank pressure gauges. LC-17B consequently had to be repaired for the second time in four months. Missile 104, launched 22 August from the newly opened LC-17A, broke up at T+92 seconds due to a drop in signal strength from the programmer, causing the engine to gimbal hard right. The guidance system tried to compensate, but the resulting structural loads exceeded the strength of the missile tankage. Thor 105 (20 September) completed

8436-538: The thorough testing done at Huntsville, Jupiter missiles mostly all arrived at CCAS in flight-ready condition while Thors typically required extensive repairs or modification before launch. After the Soviet launches of Sputnik 1 and 2 in late 1957, US Secretary of Defense Charles Wilson announced that both Thor and Jupiter would go into service as his final act before leaving office. This was both out of fear of Soviet capabilities and also to avoid political repercussions from

8547-523: The time the United States declared a quarantine of the island, 24 one-megaton warheads had arrived but no missiles or launchers had yet been shipped. The warheads were removed and the deployment of the R-14 to Cuba was cancelled after the crisis was resolved. In May 1960, development of the R-14U (universal) version, which could be launched from both surface pads or 'Chusovaya' complex missile silos ,

8658-430: The total number of Jupiters to be built to 94. The first, hand-built at ABMA, would be delivered by the end of FY57, and the first production models from Chrysler's Michigan Ordnance Missile Plant near Warren, Michigan between FY58 and FY61. A primary complaint about Jupiter was that the design's shorter range placed it within relatively easy striking distance of Soviet weapons, both missiles and aircraft. Thor, based in

8769-515: The turbine exhaust, the gimbaled exhaust pipe not being introduced until late 1958. In 1954 Test Laboratory director Karl Heimburg began construction of the Static Test Stand for Redstone testing. This was still under construction when it was re-purposed for Jupiter, and finally completed in January 1957. A Jupiter was installed in the stand that month, and fired for the first time on 12 February 1957. This almost ended in disaster when

8880-558: The workplace layoffs that would result at either Douglas or Chrysler if one of the two missiles were canceled. Deployment of the IRBM fleet to Europe proved more difficult than expected, as no NATO members other than the UK accepted the offer to have Thor missiles stationed on their soil. Italy and Turkey both agreed to accept Jupiter missiles. Thor was deployed to the UK starting in August 1958, operated by 20 squadrons of RAF Bomber Command under US-UK dual key control. The first active unit

8991-413: Was No. 77 Squadron RAF at RAF Feltwell in 1958, with the remaining units becoming active in 1959. All were deactivated by September 1963. All 60 of the Thor missiles deployed in the UK were based at above-ground launch sites. The missiles were stored horizontally on transporter-erector trailers and covered by a retractable missile shelter. To fire the weapon, the crew used an electric motor to roll back

9102-666: Was 65 feet (20 m) in height and 8 feet (2.4 m) in diameter. The first generation of Thor missiles were rushed into service, and design mistakes resulted in a 24% launch failure rate. The competing PGM-19 Jupiter missile saw more use, but both were quickly eclipsed by the Air Force's long range ICBM program, which could be fired from US soil. By 1959, with the Atlas rocket well on its way to operational status, both Thor and Jupiter programs became obsolete as delivery vehicles, yet continued to be built and deployed until 1963 for political reasons and to maintain aerospace industry employment. The missile's lasting legacy continued as

9213-680: Was accepted for service in June 1963, and the first R-14U silo division became operational at Priekule, Latvia in 1964. Complexes were also built in the Russian Far East, Kazakhstan, Ukraine. Deployment of the R-14 and R-14U reached its peak from 1964-1969 with 97 launchers. Reaction time in the normal readiness condition is 1-3 hours for soft sites and 5-15 minutes for hard sites. Readiness states for reaction times of 3-5 minutes could be held for several hours at soft sites and several days at hard sites. Phasing out of hard sites began in 1971 and R-14Us (in mixed deployment with mobile launchers)

9324-413: Was accurate to about 5,900 feet (1,800 m). During development, the US Navy became involved in the Jupiter program, with the objective of arming submarines with a ballistic missile. This led to the Jupiter's squat shape, which allowed it to be stored within the confines of a submarine hull. However, the Navy was always concerned about the extremely risky situation of a liquid-fueled rocket stored in

9435-435: Was almost 2.5 minutes, boosting the missile to a speed of 14,400 ft/s (4,400 m/s). Ten minutes into its flight the missile reached an altitude of 280 miles (450 km), close to the apogee of its elliptical flight path. At that point the reentry vehicle separated from the missile fuselage and began its descent toward the target. Total flight time from launch to target impact was approximately 18 minutes. The Thor

9546-427: Was authorized and test launches began in January 1962. In the silo-launched version, each regiment consisted of two divisions, each division being a single emplacement with a hardened command and control technical point and three silos. The silos were placed at least 100 m from the other about the technical point. Each silo was 30 m deep and hardened to withstand overpressures of 2 kg/cm (28 psi). The silo design

9657-429: Was aware of these efforts and had already talked to the press about it, suggesting that if the Soviets launched a satellite first it would be no big deal. To their surprise, the press exploded in rage over the affair. Having spent over a decade working on similar missiles, like Atlas , the fact that the Soviets could beat them was a serious blow, and prompted a deep review of the ongoing programs. One problem noted from

9768-470: Was by the Italian Air Force, CM-106, which took place from LC-26B on 23 January 1963. Jupiter missiles were used in a series of suborbital biological test flights . On 13 December 1958, Jupiter AM-13 was launched from Cape Canaveral , Florida with a Navy-trained South American squirrel monkey named Gordo on board. The nose cone recovery parachute failed to operate and Gordo did not survive

9879-415: Was clear that Jupiter represented a threat to the Air Force's desired hegemony over strategic forces. This led to them starting their own MRBM program Thor , in spite of having repeatedly dismissed the medium-range role in the past. The fighting between the Army and Air Force grew through 1955 and 1956 until practically every missile system the Army was involved in was being attacked in the press. The Navy

9990-470: Was concerned from the start about Jupiter's cryogenic propellants , but at the time there was no other option. Given the size and weight of contemporary nuclear weapons, only a large liquid-fuel rocket engine provided the energy needed to meet the Navy's range goal of launching from safe areas in the Atlantic Ocean. They justified the risk thus: We were prepared to take the chance that we might lose

10101-435: Was declared operational on 15 January 1958. Taking the time to also fully rate the engine to 150,000 lbf, the new engine was first flown on AM-5 on 18 May 1958 from LC-26B, reaching a planned 1,247 nautical miles (2,309 km; 1,435 mi). AM-5 also carried the real nose cone design, which separated from the rocket body, spun up the warhead, and separated to allow the warhead to continue on its own. The warhead section

10212-505: Was delivered to ABMA in January 1956, followed by the first prototype engines in July 1956. Testing of these engines began in September 1956 at ABMA's new Power Plant Test Stand. This demonstrated a number of problems with unstable combustion, leading to the failure of four engines by November. To continue testing, the engine was temporarily derated back to 135,000 lbf and was successfully tested at this level in January 1957. Continued work on

10323-656: Was deployed at five sites near İzmir , Turkey from 1961 to 1963, operated by USAF personnel, with the first flight of three Jupiter missiles turned over to the Türk Hava Kuvvetleri (Turkish Air Force) in late October 1962, but USAF personnel retaining control of nuclear warhead arming. On four occasions between mid-October 1961 and August 1962, Jupiter mobile missiles carrying 1.4 megatons of TNT (5.9 PJ) nuclear warheads were struck by lightning at their bases in Italy. In each case, thermal batteries were activated, and on two occasions, tritium - deuterium "boost" gas

10434-578: Was equipped with a parachute and was recovered by the Navy some 28 nautical miles (52 km; 32 mi) from its predicted splashdown point. AM-6B included both the production nose cone and the ST-90 INS during its launch from LC-26B on 17 July 1958. This time the Navy recovered it only 1.5 nautical miles (2.8 km; 1.7 mi) from its planned splashdown point 1,241 nautical miles (2,298 km; 1,428 mi) downrange. AM-7 flew 1,207 nautical miles (2,235 km; 1,389 mi) on 27 August, testing

10545-439: Was equipped with the lower-thrust interim engine. The vehicle performed well until past 50 seconds into launch when control started to fail, leading to breakup at T+73 seconds. It was deduced that turbopump exhaust was sucked up by the partial vacuum in the area behind the missile and began to burn in the tail section. The heat burned through the control wiring, so extra insulation was added there on future flights. An identical AM-1B

10656-499: Was in keeping with the Army's view of nuclear weapons, which was in effect more powerful artillery . They saw the weapons as part of a large-scale battle in Europe, in which both sides would use nuclear weapons during a limited war that did not include the use of strategic weapons on each other's cities. In that case, "if wars were to be kept limited, such weapons would have to be capable of hitting only tactical targets." This approach saw

10767-506: Was initially deployed with a very blunt conical G.E. Mk 2 'heat sink' re-entry vehicle. They were later converted to the slender G.E. Mk 3 ablative RV. Both RVs contained a W-49 thermonuclear warhead with an explosive yield of 1.44 megatons . The IRBM program was quickly eclipsed by the Air Force's ICBM program and made redundant. By 1959, with Atlas well on its way to operational status, Thor and Jupiter became obsolete, although both remained in service as missiles until 1963. In retrospect,

10878-480: Was injected into the warhead pits , partially arming them. After the fourth lightning strike on a Jupiter MRBM, the USAF placed protective lightning strike-diversion tower arrays at all of the Italian and Turkish Jupiter MRBM missiles sites. In 1962, a Bulgarian MiG-17 reconnaissance airplane was reported to have crashed into an olive grove near one of the U.S. Jupiter missile launch sites in Italy, after overflying

10989-456: Was introduced, along with a series of changes to the test stand to help retain control in these situations. Kurt Debus had led the construction of launch pads for Redstone missiles at Cape Canaveral, Florida , building the twin LC-5 and LC-6 pads about 500 feet (150 m) apart with a common blockhouse located 300 feet (91 m) away between the two. Redstone testing moved to these pads from

11100-514: Was of paramount importance to a submarine design. The Navy announced their desire to develop their own missile that summer, initially under the name Jupiter-S. After intensive follow-up studies, the Navy withdrew from the Jupiter program in December 1956. This was officially announced by the Army in January 1957. In its place, the Navy began development of what was then known as the Fleet Ballistic Missile Program, and

11211-508: Was only one more failure in the Jupiter program, AM-23 on 15 September 1959, which developed a leak in a nitrogen bottle that led to depressurization of the RP-1 tank and almost immediate loss of control at liftoff. The missile wobbled from side to side and the RP-1 tank began to break apart starting at T+7 seconds. The Jupiter flipped upside down, dumping out the contents of the RP-1 tank, followed by total vehicle breakup at T+13 seconds, just before

11322-440: Was quickly readied and launched on 26 April. AM-1B's flight went entirely according to plan up to T+70 seconds when the missile started becoming unstable in flight and finally broke up at T+93 seconds. The failure was deduced to have been the result of propellant slosh due to bending modes induced by the steering maneuvers needed to perform the flight trajectory. The solution to this problem involved testing several types of baffles in

11433-413: Was rapidly falling, and by combining this engine with a warhead of 2,000 pounds (910 kg) they could build a single-stage missile able to reach 1,500–1,700 miles (2,400–2,700 km) while being significantly less complicated and easier to handle in the field than a two-stage model. This engine was continually upgraded, ultimately reaching 150,000 pounds-force (670,000 N). This last model, known to

11544-455: Was reached during their 16-minute flight. After splashdown the Jupiter nosecone carrying Able and Baker was recovered by the seagoing tug USS Kiowa (ATF-72). The monkeys survived the flight in good condition. Able died four days after the flight from a reaction to anesthesia while undergoing surgery to remove an infected medical electrode. Baker lived for many years after the flight, finally succumbing to kidney failure on 29 November 1984 at

11655-437: Was replaced. Launch finally took place on 25 January 1957. The engine lost thrust almost immediately after liftoff, and the Thor fell onto the launch pad and exploded. A film of prelaunch preparations showed crews dragging a liquid oxygen (LOX) filler hose through a sandy area, which led to the belief that debris entering the LOX, caused the failure of a valve. Thor 102 was launched on 20 April. The booster performed normally, but

11766-649: Was retired in the late 1970s. Some soft site phase-outs began in 1969, and the missile was gradually replaced by the RSD-10 Pioneer between 1978 and 1983, being completely withdrawn from service in 1984. Following the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty , the remaining six R-14 missiles in storage were scrapped on 9 August 1989. The missile was the basis of the Kosmos-3 launch vehicle family. In 1964,

11877-580: Was the Chrysler Corporation . The Jupiter was originally designed by the US Army , which was looking for a highly accurate missile designed to strike enemy states such as China and the Soviet Union . The US Navy also expressed an interest in the design as an SLBM but left the collaboration to work on their solid-fuel Polaris . Jupiter retained the short, squat shape intended to fit in submarines. Jupiter traces its history ultimately to

11988-485: Was the first nuclear armed , medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) of the United States Air Force (USAF). It was a liquid-propellant rocket using RP-1 fuel and LOX oxidizer, with a single Rocketdyne LR79-NA (model S-3D) rocket engine producing 667 kilonewtons (150,000 lb f ) of thrust. It was armed with the 1.44 megatons of TNT (6.0 PJ) W49 nuclear warhead. The prime contractor

12099-529: Was used for over 420 successful launches until retired from service in 2010. PGM-17 Thor The PGM-17A Thor was the first operative ballistic missile of the United States Air Force (USAF). It was named after the Norse god of thunder . It was deployed in the United Kingdom between 1959 and September 1963 as an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) with thermonuclear warheads . Thor

12210-571: Was well aware that the Air Force would oppose any such endeavor. Instead, he approached the Army, and found that the proposed Jupiter fit the range goals needed by the Navy. The issue of who would be given the go-ahead to build an IRBM by this time had reached the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), who proved unable to reach a decision. This forced the Secretary of Defense Charles Erwin Wilson to move ahead without an official recommendation from

12321-453: Was worried it would take up funding needed elsewhere. Another skeptic of missiles was the Chief of Naval Operations , Robert B. Carney . Lower-ranking Navy officials became increasingly interested when the Army and Air Force began serious development of their long-range missiles. In an attempt to bypass high-ranking Navy officials, who remained uninterested in the concept, the Navy liaison to

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