Thor-Agena

Thor-Agena was a series of orbital launch vehicles. The rockets used Thor first stages and Agena second stages. They are thus cousins of the more famous Thor-Deltas, which founded the Delta rocket family. The first attempted launch of a Thor-Agena was in January 1959. The first successful launch was on February 28, 1959, launching " Discoverer-1".

Uses

Among other uses, the clandestine Corona program used Thor-Agenas from June 1959 until January 1968 to launch US military reconnaissance satellites operated by the CIA. In 1962, for example, Thor-Agena launch vehicles were used in 24 launch attempts now known to have been part of satellite surveillance programs.

Also, "Alouette 1," Canada's first satellite, was launched on a Thor-Agena-B.

Versions

; Thor-Agena-A
* 16 launches between 21 Jan 1959 and 13 Sep 1960
* The Discoverer 14 satellite used in the Corona spy satellite program was launched by a Thor-Agena-A. On 1960-08-19 usable photographic film from the satellite was recovered by a C-119 recovery aircraft. This was the first successful recovery of film from an orbiting satellite and the first mid-air recovery of an object returning from Earth orbit.cite web |url=http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=1960-010A |title=Discoverer 14 - NSSDC ID: 1960-010A |publisher=NASA]

; Thor-Agena-B
* First successful launch: Nov 12, 1960 with "Discoverer 17"
* Last launch: May 15, 1966 with "Nimbus 2"

; Thor-Agena-D
* First launch: Jun 28, 1962
* Last launch: Jan 17, 1968

References