Conestoga (1620)

First Launch:

October 1995

Flight Rate:

TBD

Launch Site:

Wallops Flight Facility (WFF, USA)

Capability:

2,601 lb to 97 NM, 38°; 2,205 lb to 97 NM, 90°

History

• Space Services Incorporated (SSI) switched to the all-solid Conestoga design after explosion of its first launcher, Percheron, with a liquid first stage
• Successful demonstration launch to a suborbital trajectory of Conestoga 1 on 9 Sep 1982, using a Minuteman 1 second stage motor
• SSI was acquired in Dec 1990 by EER Systems Corporation

Description

• Four-stage vehicle with four Thiokol Castor IVBs and two Thiokol Castor IVAs clustered around core Castor IVB
• Stage 1 uses two Thiokol Castor IVB motors that burn HTPB solid propellant, generating 96,037 lb of thrust each, and two Thiokol Castor IVA motors that burn HTPB solid propellant, generating 110,977 lb of thrust each
• Stage 2 uses two Thiokol Castor IVB motors that burn HTPB solid propellant, generating 96,037 lb of thrust each
• Stage 3 uses one Thiokol Castor IVB motor that burns HTPB solid propellant, generating 96,824 lb of thrust
• Stage 4 uses one Thiokol Star 48V for injection that burns HTPB solid propellant, generating 15,355 lb of thrust (vacuum)

Profile

Length:

51.5 ft

Launch Weight:

191,700 lb

Diameter:

3.4 ft

Liftoff Thrust:

355,600 lb

Payload Fairing:

16 ft x 6 ft