LAUNCH CENTER

Success

Fri Apr 21 1961

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Trailblazer 1g

Launch Successful

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RECOVERY OVERVIEW

Location

No Recovery Specified

Type

No Recovery Specified

Rocket Details

Name:

Trailblazer 1

Description:

American test vehicle. The rocket's first three stages would take the upper stage package to a 260 km apogee. The upper stage package was mounted upside-down in relation to the other stages. When it had reached the peak, the three upper stages fired in sequence, ramming the payload, a 13 cm sphere, into the atmosphere at orbital re-entry speeds.

MISSION OVERVIEW

Type: Test Flight
An experiment where an actual 'artificial meteorite' was flown. This was a 5.8 g steel pellet, which was driven into the atmosphere at 6 km/sec by a 'seventh stage', a shaped charge that accelerated the pellet after burnout of the rocket's six stage. This experiment provided a known reference by which the size of actual meteoroids could be measured according to the luminance of their trails.

COMPLEX OVERVIEW

Location

Wallops Island, Virginia, USA

Pad

Unknown Pad