Quote:
Originally Posted by renormalised
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Must be a dangerous place up there.
Tonight we have the Atlas 2A Centaur R/B at 0.0 mag!! How come so bright, is it a biggie??
Ok ... its an American rocket body that goes from mag 2.7 to -3.4 .... launched in 1963!!
Oh, so its leftovers from a previous launch.
Atlas-Centaurhttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...r_1_launch.jpg
An Atlas-Centaur launching
Surveyor 1Function
Expendable launch systemManufacturer
Convair
General DynamicsCountry of originUnited StatesLaunch historyStatusRetiredLaunch sites
LC-36,
Cape CanaveralTotal launches61Successes51Failures8Parti al failures2Maiden flight9 May 1962Last flight19 May 1983
The
Atlas-Centaur was an American
expendable launch system derived from the
SM-65 Atlas missile. It was a member of the
Atlas family of rockets, and was used for 61
orbital launches between 1962 and 1983.
[1] It was replaced by the
Atlas G, which still contains a Centaur upper stage on top of an Atlas rocket. It was the first rocket to use
cryogenic fuel; the Centaur stage burned
liquid hydrogen and
liquid oxygen.