MA-5 was an American liquid fueled

rocket A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...

stage, developed by

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It ...

for use on the

Atlas I The Atlas I was a US expendable launch system manufactured by General Dynamics in the 1990s to launch a variety of satellites. In June 1987, General Dynamics committed $100M to acquire long-lead procurement items to support build of 18 vehicles f ...

rocket.

Design

MA-5 functioned as the "half stage" in the Atlas's "stage-and-a-half" design, meaning they functioned as a booster attached to a central sustainer core, but did not include their own fuel tanks. Instead, fuel was drained out of the tanks of the sustainer core, until partway through the launch the booster segment was jettisoned. Similar to the booster segments on previous Atlas rockets, MA-5 consisted of a thrust structure with attachment points and fuel lines for two LR-89-7 rocket engines, each contained in a nacelle for aerodynamic reasons. The middle was left empty to accommodate the LR-105-7 engine of the sustainer stage. The two booster engines shared a common

gas generator A gas generator is a device for generating gas. A gas generator may create gas by a chemical reaction or from a solid or liquid source, when storing a pressurized gas is undesirable or impractical. The term often refers to a device that uses a ...

, but separate

turbopump A turbopump is a propellant pump with two main components: a rotodynamic pump and a driving gas turbine, usually both mounted on the same shaft, or sometimes geared together. They were initially developed in Germany in the early 1940s. The purpos ...

s, combustion chambers, and other hardware.

References

{{Reflist Rocket stages