*** Welcome to piglix ***

Atlas (missile)

B-65/SM-65/CGM-16/HGM-16 Atlas
Mercury-Atlas 2 liftoff.jpg
Launch of Mercury-Atlas 2 in February 1961
Function Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM)
Manufacturer Convair
Country of origin United States
Size
Height 75 ft 10 in (23.11 m)
85 ft 6 in (26.06 m) in ICBM configuration
Diameter 10 ft (3.0 m)
Width 16 ft (4.9 m)
Mass 260,000 lb (117,900 kg)
Stages
Associated rockets
Family Atlas
Launch history
Status Retired April 1965
Total launches 24
Successes 13
Failures 11
First flight June 6, 1957
Last flight August 24, 1959
Boosters
No. boosters 1
Engines 2
Thrust 300,000 lbf (1,300 kN)
Atlas D
Total thrust 360,000 lbf (1,600 kN)
Atlas D
Fuel RP-1/LOX
First stage
Engines 1
Thrust 60,000 lbf (270 kN)
Atlas D
Fuel RP-1/LOX
SM-65 Atlas
Service history
In service 1959-1964
Production history
Designed 1953 (XB-65)
Produced 1959-1965
Number built 350 (all versions)
Peak deployment level of 129
(30 D, 27 E, 72 F).
Variants Atlas A, B/C, D, E/F (ICBMs)
SLV-3/3A/3C (NASA use)

The SM-65 Atlas was the first operational intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) developed by the United States, and the first member of the Atlas rocket family. It was built for the U.S. Air Force by Convair Division of General Dynamics at the Kearny Mesa assembly plant north of San Diego, California. Atlas became operational as an ICBM in October 1959 and was used as a first stage for satellite launch vehicles for half a century. The Atlas missile's warhead was over 100 times more powerful than the bomb dropped over Nagasaki in 1945.

An initial development contract was given to Consolidated Vultee Aircraft (Convair) on 16 January 1951 for what was then called MX-1593, but at a relatively low priority. The 1953 testing of the first dry fuel H-bomb in the Soviet Union led to the project being dramatically accelerated. The initial design completed by Convair in 1953 was larger than the missile that eventually entered service. Estimated warhead weight was lowered from 8,000 lb (3,630 kg) to 3,000 lb (1,360 kg) based on highly favorable U.S. nuclear warhead tests in early 1954, and on 14 May 1954 the Atlas program was formally given the highest national priority. A major development and test contract was awarded to Convair on 14 January 1955 for a 10-foot (3 m) diameter missile to weigh about 250,000 lb (113,400 kg). Atlas development was tightly controlled by the Air Force's Western Development Division, WDD, later part of the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division. Contracts for warhead, guidance and propulsion were handled separately by WDD. The first successful flight of a highly instrumented Atlas missile to full range occurred 28 November 1958. Atlas ICBMs were deployed operationally from 31 October 1959 to 12 April 1965.

On 18 December 1958, the launch of Atlas 10B sent the missile into orbit around the Earth (without use of an upper stage) carrying the "SCORE" (Signal Communications by Orbiting Relay Equipment) communications payload. Atlas 10B/SCORE, at 8,750 lb (3,970 kg) was the heaviest man-made object then in orbit, the first voice relay satellite, and the first man-made object in space easily visible to the naked eye due to the large, mirror-polished stainless steel tank. This was the first flight in what would be a long career for the Atlas as a satellite launcher. Many retired Atlas ICBMs would be used as launch vehicles, most with an added spin-stabilized solid rocket motor upper stage for polar orbit military payloads. Even before its military use ended in 1965, Atlas had placed four Project Mercury astronauts in orbit and was becoming the foundation for a family of successful space launch vehicles, most notably Atlas Agena and Atlas Centaur.


...
Wikipedia

...