Don Savage                                                                                                                 
May 6, 1994
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
(Phone:  202/358-1547)

Fred A. Brown
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
(Phone:  301/286-7277)

Keith Henry
Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va. 
(Phone:  804/864-6124)

RELEASE: 94-72

SCOUT LAUNCH VEHICLE TO RETIRE AFTER 34 YEARS OF SERVICE

 NASA has scheduled the 118th and final flight of the Solid 
Controlled Orbital Utility Test (SCOUT) launch vehicle for Friday, 
May 6, from the Western Test Range, Vandenberg Air Force Base, 
Lompoc, Calif.  The 10-minute launch window opens at 10:45 p.m. 
EDT.

 SCOUT has been a reliable rocket for nearly 34 years, flying its 
first mission on July 1, 1960, and becoming one of NASA's most 
successful launch vehicles.  SCOUT's reliability for the last 26 
years has been 98.3 percent and, since 1976, its launch success 
rate has been 100 percent.  According to project officials, this 
reliability can be traced to its use of standardized launch and 
manufacturing procedures and the incorporation of off-the-shelf 
technology.

 Although it is the smallest NASA launch vehicle capable of 
orbiting satellites, SCOUT has been a real workhorse for the space 
agency.  Due to its extensive contributions to the space program 
and the limited publicity it has received, SCOUT has been called, 
"the unsung hero of space."

 The SCOUT program was managed from 1958 through Dec. 1990 by 
NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va.  Program management 
was transferred to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, 
Md., in Jan. 1991.

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 The last SCOUT will launch a Miniature Sensor Technology 
Integration (MSTI) satellite. The satellite, designated MSTI-2, 
will conduct tracking and Earth-observation experiments.  Designed 
and built by Phillips Laboratory at Edwards Air Force Base, 
Calif., the MSTI program is in support of the Ballistic Missile 
Defense Organization's Theater Missile Defense Directive.  A SCOUT 
launch vehicle launched the first MSTI satellite in Nov. 1992.

 This launch vehicle had its beginnings as early as 1957.  The U. 
S. needed a relatively inexpensive, quickly produced rocket to 
launch small research experiments, and Langley engineers were 
asked to design it.  Their goal was to provide a launch vehicle 
capable of performing a variety of probe, re-entry and orbital 
missions with minimum preparation time.

 The conception was complete in 1958, and Chance Vought Aircraft 
(now Loral Vought Systems) was placed under contract in March 1959 
to build SCOUT vehicles.  This was the beginning of a 
government/contractor relationship which has lasted more than 35 
years.

 SCOUT was America's first solid-fuel launch vehicle capable of 
orbiting a satellite.  The standard SCOUT launch vehicle is a 
solid-propellant, four-stage booster system, approximately 75 feet 
(23 meters) long with a launch weight of 47,398 pounds (21,500 
kilograms).

 Unlike most of NASA's larger expendable rockets, the SCOUT is 
assembled and the payload is integrated and checked-out in the 
horizontal position prior to launch. SCOUT's first-stage motor was 
based on an earlier version of the Navy's Polaris missile motor.  
The second-stage motor was developed from the Army's Sergeant 
surface-to-surface missile, and the third- and fourth-stage motors 
were adapted by Langley from the Navy's Vanguard missile.

 The first SCOUT was launched from Goddard's Wallops Flight 
Facility, Wallops Island, Va., on July 1, 1960.  The rocket 
carried a 193-pound (88-kilogram) payload as a probe test.  On 
February 16, 1961, Scout became the first solid-fuel rocket to 
place a payload into orbit. The vehicle carried a 96-pound 
(44-kilogram) NASA atmospheric physics payload into orbit without 
incident.

 Two launch sites were added in subsequent years.  One, at the 
Western Test Range at Vandenberg Air Force Base, was added in 
1962.  Another was built on Italy's unique sea-based San Marco 
platform off the east coast of Kenya, Africa, the site of nine 
successful equatorial missions since 1967.

 SCOUT capability grew dramatically over the years.  Originally 
able to place a 131-pound (59-kilogram) payload in a nominal 
345-mile (552-kilometer) circular orbit, SCOUT performance was 
improved, increasing its capability to put a 458-pound 
(208-kilogram) payload into the same orbit.  The heaviest 
satellite ever 

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placed in  orbit by SCOUT was an Italian payload that weighed more  
than 600 pounds (270 kilograms) and was launched out of Africa.  
SCOUT increased its load-carrying capability 350 percent over that 
of the original vehicle with little increase in the size of its 
stages.

 The SCOUT program has made possible important contributions to 
knowledge of space, not only for the U. S. but also for a number 
of foreign  nations, including Italy, Great Britain, Germany, 
France, the Netherlands and the multi-national European Space 
Agency.  These contributions have been in navigation, astronomy, 
geodesy, meteoroid environment, re-entry materials, biology, 
spacecraft technology and  applications.

 To commemorate SCOUT's contributions to the  American space 
program, there is a SCOUT rocket on display in the Smithsonian 
Institution's National Air and Space  Museum, Washington, D.C.

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