Castor (rocket stage)

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The Castor family of solid-fuel rocket stages and boosters were built by Thiokol and used on a variety of launch vehicles.^[1]

[edit] Versions

Castor 1:
The Castor 1 was first used for a successful suborbital launch of a Scout X-1 rocket on September 2, 1960.^[2] It was 19.42 feet (5.9 m) long, 2.6 feet (0.8 m) in diameter, and had a burn time of 27 seconds. Castor 1 stages were also used as strap-on boosters for launch vehicles using Thor first stages, including the Delta-D. (A Delta-D was used in 1964 to launch Syncom-3, the first satellite placed in a geostationary orbit.) Castor 1 stages were used in 141 launch attempts of Scout and Delta rockets, only 2 of which were failures. They were also used on some thrust-assisted Thor Agena launchers. The last launch using a Castor 1 was in 1971.^[3]
Castor 2:
The Castor 2 was an upgraded version of the Castor 1. It was first used on a Scout in 1965, and continued to be used on Scouts until the last Scout launch, in 1994. Castor 2 stages were also used as the strap-on boosters for the Delta-E. It retained the same diameter as the Castor 1, and was from 5.96 m to 6.27 m in length.
Castor 4:
The Castor 4, along with its A and B variants, were expanded to 1.02 m in diameter. They were used on some Delta, Delta II, Atlas IIAS, and Athena launch vehicles.