Thor (rocket family)

Thor was a US space launch vehicle derived from the PGM-17 Thor intermediate-range ballistic missile. The Thor rocket was the first member of the Delta rocket family of space launch vehicles. The last launch of a direct derivative of the Thor missile occurred in 2018 as the first stage of the final Delta II.

Thor-Able

Ablestar

Ablestar was a

Transit 4A, which became the first object to unintentionally explode in space, creating at least 294 trackable pieces of space debris.^[4]

Thor-Delta

The Delta second stage was derived from the Able second stage. Members of the Delta rocket family derived from the Thor-Delta continue to launch satellites and space probes.

By 1969, the Thor core was being used regularly both in Delta vehicles and in the USAF Standard Space Launch Vehicle (SLV-2), with thrust augmentation and a variety of upper stages.

Thor-Agena

Together with the

Vandenberg AFB.^[5]

These were the first photographic spy satellites, used for photographic surveillance of the Soviet Union, China and other areas. Thor-Agenas were used as launch vehicles for Corona satellites from June 1959 through May 1963.

The Thrust Augmented Thor (TAT) was developed to handle the growing satellites of the

Corona program. It added three Castor

solid-fuel rocket strapon boosters—each providing 53,000 lbf (236 kN) thrust—to the standard Thor core stage. The boosters were lit on the ground and jettisoned after burnout.

The Thrust-Augmented Long Tank Thor/Agena incorporated modifications allowing 49,000 lb (22,000 kg) more propellant and was capable of sending payloads ranging from 1400 to about 2800 pounds into 100-nautical-mile (190 km) polar circular orbits.[6]

Thorad-Agena

The Thorad-Agena (pictured) was developed from Thor. It used a Long Tank Thor to launch an Agena-D upper stage.

References

^ Deny Rocket Lag. Atlas Firing Keynotes U.S. Missile Build-Up, 1959/01/29 (1959). Universal Newsreel. 1959. Retrieved February 22, 2012.
^ "Transit 1B - NSSDC ID: 1960-003B". NASA NSSDC.
^ "GRAB: 1st Recon Satellite". U.S. Navy. Archived from the original on 2007-07-23. Retrieved 2008-06-22.
^ "Orbital Debris: A Chronology" (PDF). NASA JSC. 1999. p. 18. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2000-09-01.
^ "Corona". NASA. Archived from the original on 2007-03-11.
^ Bleymaier, Joseph S. "Future Space Booster Requirements". USAF. Archived from the original on 2008-03-20. Retrieved 2008-03-04.

v t e USAF and USSF space vehicle designations (since 1962)
SLV series	SLV-1 (Scout) SLV-2 (Thor) SLV-3 (Atlas) SLV-4 (Titan II) SLV-5 (Titan)
SB series	SB-1 SB-2 SB-3 SB-4 SB-5 SB-6 SSB-7 SSB-8 SSB-9 SSB-10 ASB-11
Satellites	WS-1 WS-2 LS-3 ES-4 ES-5 LS-6 NS-7 ES-8 LS-9 LS-10 (I) XSS-10 (II) XSS-11² XSS-12 S-13¹ ES-14 LS-15³ LS-16³ ES-17 EWS-G1 EWS-G2
¹ Not assigned ² Unofficial designation ³ Designation believed to be this type but unconfirmed

v t e Orbital launch systems
List of orbital launch systems Comparison of orbital launch systems
Current	Angara 1.2 A5 Atlas V Ceres 1 1S Chollima-1 Electron Falcon 9 Block 5 Falcon Heavy Firefly Alpha Gravity-1 GSLV H-IIA H3 Hyperbola-1 Jielong 1 3 KAIROS ^† Kaituozhe 2 Kinetica-1 Kuaizhou 1 1A 11 Long March 2C 2D 2F 3A 3B/E 3C 4B 4C 5 5B 6 6A 7 7A 8 11 11H LVM3 Minotaur I IV V C Nuri OS-M1 ^† Pegasus XL Proton-M PSLV Qaem 100 Qased RS1 ^† Shavit 2 Simorgh SLS Block 1 Soyuz-2 2.1a / STA 2.1b / STB 2-1v SSLV Starship Tianlong-2 Unha Vega original C Vulcan Centaur Zenit 3SL 3SLB 3F Zhuque 2
In development	Antares 330 Ariane 6 Bloostar Cyclone-4M Epsilon S Eris Gravity-2 Hyperbola-2 Irtysh Kuaizhou 21 31 Long March 9 10 12 Miura 5 MLV Neutron New Glenn New Line 1 NGLV OS-M 2 4 Orbex Prime Pallas-1 Red Dwarf SLS Block 1B Block 2 Soyuz-7 Terran R Tianlong-3 VLM Vega E Zero Zhuque 3 Zuljanah
Retired	Antares 110 120 130^† 230 230+ Ariane 1 2 3 4 5 ASLV Athena I II Atlas B D E/F G H I II III LV-3B SLV-3 Able^† Agena Centaur Black Arrow Conestoga^† Delta A B C D E G J L M N 0100 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 II III IV IV Heavy Diamant Dnepr Energia Epsilon Europa I^† II^† Falcon 1 Falcon 9 v1.0 v1.1 v1.2 "Full Thrust" Feng Bao 1 GSLV Mk I H-I H-II H-IIB Juno I Juno II Kaituozhe-1 Kosmos original 1 2/2I 3 3M Lambda 4S LauncherOne Long March 1 1D^† 2A 2E 3 3B 4A Mu 4S 3C 3H 3S 3SII V N1^† N-I N-II Naro-1 Paektusan ^† Pilot-2^† R-7 Luna Molniya M L Polyot Soyuz original FG L M U U2 Soyuz/Vostok Sputnik Voskhod Vostok L K 2 2M R-29 Shtil' Volna^† Rocket 3 Safir 1 1A 1B Saturn I IB V Scout X-1 Blue Scout II^† X-2^† X-2M X-3 X-3M X-4 X-2B^† B A B-1 D-1 A-1 E-1 F-1 G-1 Shavit original 1 SLV Space Shuttle SPARK^† Sparta SS-520 Start-1 Terran 1^† Thor Able Ablestar 1 2 Agena A B D Burner 1 2 Delta DSV-2U Thorad-Agena SLV-2G SLV-2H Titan II GLV IIIA IIIB IIIC IIID IIIE 34D 23G CT-3 IV Tsyklon R-36-O original 2 3 Universal Rocket UR-500 Proton Proton-K Rokot Strela Vanguard VLS-1^† Zenit 2 2M 2FG Zhuque 1 ^†
Classes	Sounding rocket Small-lift launch vehicle Medium-lift launch vehicle Heavy-lift launch vehicle Super heavy-lift launch vehicle
This Template lists historical, current, and future space rockets that at least once attempted (but not necessarily succeeded in) an orbital launch or that are planned to attempt such a launch in the future Symbol ^† indicates past or current rockets that attempted orbital launches but never succeeded (never did or has yet to perform a successful orbital launch)

Rocket families

Carrier rockets

China	Long March 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 11 Kuaizhou
Europe / ESA	Ariane Diamant Europa Vega Miura 1 5
India	PSLV GSLV LVM3
Japan	Epsilon H-II / H-IIA / H-IIB Mu
Soviet Union / Russia	Angara Kosmos N1 Proton R-7 Molniya Soyuz Vostok Universal Rocket
Soviet Union / Ukraine	Tsyklon Zenit
United States	Antares Athena Atlas Delta Electron Falcon 1 9 Heavy Jupiter Minotaur Pegasus Saturn Scout Titan Thor
Other nations	Safir Shavit Unha

Sounding rockets

Missiles

Some families include both missiles and carrier rockets; they are listed in both groups.

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