The Burner, Burner II, and Burner IIA rocket

stages Stage or stages may refer to: Acting * Stage (theatre), a space for the performance of theatrical productions * Theatre, a branch of the performing arts, often referred to as "the stage" * ''The Stage'', a weekly British theatre newspaper * S ...

have been used as upper stages of

launch vehicle A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload (spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pad, launch pads, supported by a missile launch contro ...

s such as the

Thor-Burner The Thor-Burner was an American expendable launch system, a member of the Thor rocket family. It consisted of a Thor missile, with one or two Burner upper stages. It was used between 1965 and 1976 to orbit a number of satellites, most commonly D ...

and

Delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), a letter of the Greek alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * D ( NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta") * Delta Air Lines, US * Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 Delta may also ...

since 1965. The Burner 1 stage was also called the Altair stage and was derived from the fourth stage of the Scout launch vehicle. The Burner 2 stage was powered by a

Star 37 The Star is a family of US solid-propellant rocket motors originally developed by Thiokol and used by many space propulsion and launch vehicle stages. They are used almost exclusively as an upper stage, often as an apogee kick motor. Three Star 3 ...

solid rocket motor. In September 1965, Air Force Space Systems Division announced the development of a new, low cost upper stage called Burner II. It was intended as the smallest maneuverable upper stage in the Air Force inventory. In June 1967, the first Thor/Burner II vehicle successfully launched a pair of satellites to orbit. In June 1969, the Space and Missile Systems Organization (SAMSO) began development of the Burner IIA configuration which would offer a tandem motor injection capability and almost twice the capability of Burner II. In June 1971, the last of the Burner II missions was launched from Vandenberg by a Thor/Burner II launch vehicle and carried an SESP-1 space environmental satellite. In addition to use on Delta family rockets, Burner 2 stages have been used on both

Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geographic ...

and Titan rockets. Atlas E/F vehicles were configured with a Burner II/IIA stage and launched in 1968 and 1972. The first launch failed with the second delivering a radiation research payload for the Space Test Program (P72-1 Radsat) using Burner IIA. In the mid-1970s Burner II was also studied for use as an upper stage in combination with the Space Shuttle. NASA managers choose other solutions for missions where upper stages were required.

References

Rocket stages 1967 in spaceflight 1971 in spaceflight {{rocketry-stub