In article ,
Michael Gallagher wrote:
it's worth remembering that the Space Shuttle and the Saturn series
are the only US oribital boosters (does Scout count?) not derived from
ICBMs...

Scout is rather borderline, since its first stage is roughly a Polaris
first stage, and its second stage is a Sergeant derivative. The launcher
as a whole is not an ex-missile but major parts are.

However, you forgot Pegasus, which has no particular missile heritage.
Even its solid motors are custom-made for it, although the motor
production facilities and technology come from military programs.

The Atlast V is a descendant of the Altas ICBM; Delta came
from the Thor IRBM.

In fairness, there is really nothing left of Thor in Delta IV, and very
little of the Atlas ICBM in Atlas V. Their immediate predecessors,
Delta III and Atlas III, had clear ICBM heritage, so there's definitely
an evolutionary path there, but it's so long that there's nothing much
remaining from the originals.
--
MOST launched 30 June; science observations running | Henry Spencer
since Oct; first surprises seen; papers pending. |