Viking was series of twelve
sounding rockets designed and built by the
Glenn L. Martin Company under the direction of the U.S.
Naval Research Laboratory
The United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is the corporate research laboratory for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. It was founded in 1923 and conducts basic scientific research, applied research, technological ...
(NRL). Designed to supersede the German
V-2
The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was develope ...
, the Viking was the most advanced large, liquid-fueled rocket developed in the United States in the late 1940s, returning valuable scientific data from the edge of space between 1949 and 1955. Viking 4, launched in 1950, was the first sounding rocket to be launched from the deck of a ship.
After twelve flights, the Viking was adapted into the first stage for the
Vanguard
The vanguard (also called the advance guard) is the leading part of an advancing military formation. It has a number of functions, including seeking out the enemy and securing ground in advance of the main force.
History
The vanguard derives fr ...
rocket, which launched America's second satellite into orbit in 1958.
Origins
After
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, the United States experimented with captured German
V-2 rocket
The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was develop ...
s as part of the
Hermes program
Project Hermes was a missile research program run by the Ordnance Corps of the United States Army from November 15, 1944, to December 31, 1954, in response to Germany's rocket attacks in Europe during World War II. The program was to determine ...
. Based on these experiments the U.S. issued a contract 21 August 1946 to the
Glenn L. Martin Company for a series of ten large liquid-fueled rockets. The intent was to provide an independent U.S. capability in rocketry, to continue the Hermes program after the V-2s were expended, and to provide a vehicle better suited to scientific research. Originally dubbed "Neptune," it was renamed "Viking" in 1947 to avoid confusion with the
Lockheed P-2 Neptune
The Lockheed P-2 Neptune (designated P2V by the United States Navy prior to September 1962) is a maritime patrol and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft. It was developed for the US Navy by Lockheed to replace the Lockheed PV-1 Ventura and ...
The Viking was the most advanced large, liquid-fueled rocket being developed in the U.S. at the time.
Design
![Viking rocket scheme](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Viking_rocket_scheme.jpg)
The Viking was roughly half the size, in terms of mass and power, of the
V-2
The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was develope ...
. Both were actively guided rockets, fueled with the same propellant (
Ethyl alcohol
Ethanol (abbr. EtOH; also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound. It is an alcohol with the chemical formula . Its formula can be also written as or (an ethyl group linked to a hyd ...
and
liquid oxygen
Liquid oxygen—abbreviated LOx, LOX or Lox in the aerospace, submarine and gas industries—is the liquid form of molecular oxygen. It was used as the oxidizer in the first liquid-fueled rocket invented in 1926 by Robert H. Goddard, an app ...
), which were fed to a single large
pump-fed engine by two
turbine-driven pumps. The
Reaction Motors
Reaction Motors, Inc. (RMI) was an early American maker of liquid-fueled rocket engines, located in New Jersey. RMI engines with thrust powered the Bell X-1 rocket aircraft that first broke the sound barrier in 1947, and later aircraft such ...
XLR10-RM-2 engine was the largest
liquid-fueled rocket engine
A rocket engine uses stored rocket propellants as the reaction mass for forming a high-speed propulsive jet of fluid, usually high-temperature gas. Rocket engines are reaction engines, producing thrust by ejecting mass rearward, in accorda ...
developed in the United States up to that time, producing (sea level) and (vacuum) of thrust.
Isp
An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...
was and respectively, with a mission time of 103 seconds. As was also the case for the V-2,
hydrogen peroxide
Hydrogen peroxide is a chemical compound with the formula . In its pure form, it is a very pale blue liquid that is slightly more viscous than water. It is used as an oxidizer, bleaching agent, and antiseptic, usually as a dilute solution (3%â ...
was converted to steam to drive the
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 purpo ...
that fed fuel and oxidizer into the engine. As its V-2 counterpart, it also was
regeneratively cooled.
[
Viking pioneered important innovations over the V-2. One of the most significant for rocketry was the use of a ]gimbaled thrust
Gimbaled thrust is the system of thrust vectoring used in most rockets, including the Space Shuttle, the Saturn V lunar rockets, and the Falcon 9.
Operation
In a gimbaled thrust system, the engine or just the exhaust nozzle of the rocket can b ...
chamber which could be swiveled from side to side on two axes for pitch and yaw control, dispensing with the inefficient and somewhat fragile graphite vanes in the engine exhaust used by the V-2. The rotation of the engine on the gimbals was controlled by gyroscopic inertial reference; this type of guidance system was invented by Robert H. Goddard
Robert Hutchings Goddard (October 5, 1882 – August 10, 1945) was an American engineer, professor, physicist, and inventor who is credited with creating and building the world's first liquid-fueled rocket. Goddard successfully laun ...
, who had partial success with it before World War II intervened.[ Roll control was by use of the turbopump exhaust to power ]reaction control system
A reaction control system (RCS) is a spacecraft system that uses thrusters to provide attitude control and translation. Alternatively, reaction wheels are used for attitude control. Use of diverted engine thrust to provide stable attitude cont ...
(RCS) jets on the fins. Compressed gas jets stabilized the vehicle after the main power cutoff. Similar devices are now extensively used in large, steerable rockets and in space vehicles. Another improvement was that initially the alcohol tank, and later the LOX tank also, were built integral with the outer skin, saving weight. The structure was also largely aluminum
Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...
, as opposed to steel used in the V-2, thus shedding more weight.[
Vikings 1 through 7 were slightly longer (about ) than the V-2, but with a straight cylindrical body only in diameter, making the rocket quite slender. They had fairly large fins similar to those on the V-2. Vikings 8 through 14 were built with an enlarged airframe of improved design. The diameter was increased to , while the length was reduced to , altering the missile's "pencil shape". The fins were made much smaller and triangular. The added diameter meant more fuel and more weight, but the "mass ratio", of fueled to empty mass, was improved to about 5:1, a record for the time.][
]
Flight history
First model (Vikings 1-7)
On 3 May 1949, after two static firings (11 March and 25 April), the first Viking rocket took off from White Sands White Sands Missile Range
White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) is a United States Army military testing area and firing range located in the US state of New Mexico. The range was originally established as the White Sands Proving Ground on 9July 1945. White Sands National P ...
in New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...
. Its engine fired for 55 seconds, ten seconds short of the hoped-for maximum of 65, but the rocket flew on course and reached an altitude of —deemed a good start to the program.[ Viking 2, launched four months later, also suffered from premature engine cutoff and only made it to . Both had suffered from leaks in their turbines, the intense heat of the steam breaking the seal of the turbine casing. The solution was to weld the casing shut, there being no reason to access the turbine wheel again after a flight.][
The fix worked, and Viking 3, launched 9 February 1950 and incorporating an integrated (rather than discrete) oxygen tank, reached and could have gone higher. However, after 34 seconds of accurately guided flight, the rocket veered westward and threatened to leave the launch range. ]Range safety
In the field of rocketry, range safety may be assured by a system which is intended to protect people and assets on both the rocket range and downrange in cases when a launch vehicle might endanger them. For a rocket deemed to be ''off course' ...
triggered charges in the rocket to separate the nose from the engine, and both tumbled to the ground, where they were recovered for analysis.[
With successful tests of the engine and guidance systems conducted (though not on the same missions), Viking was deemed ready for its most ambitious test: shipboard launch from the deck of the USS ''Norton Sound''.][ Viking 4 was identical to Viking 3, the first of the series not incorporate design changes to fix a problem on a previous Viking.}] On 10 May 1950, from a site in the Pacific Ocean between Jarvis Island
Jarvis Island (; formerly known as Bunker Island or Bunker's Shoal) is an uninhabited coral island located in the South Pacific Ocean, about halfway between Hawaii and the Cook Islands. It is an unincorporated, unorganized territory of the Un ...
and Christmas Island
Christmas Island, officially the Territory of Christmas Island, is an Australian external territory comprising the island of the same name. It is located in the Indian Ocean, around south of Java and Sumatra and around north-west of the ...
, the fourth Viking became the first sounding rocket ever launched from a sea-going vessel. The flight was perfect, reaching , more than double that reached by Vikings 1 and 3.[
Viking 5, launched 21 November 1950 carried a vast array of photomultiplier tubes, ]ionization chamber
The ionization chamber is the simplest type of gas-filled radiation detector, and is widely used for the detection and measurement of certain types of ionizing radiation, including X-rays, gamma rays, and beta particles. Conventionally, the term ...
s and Geiger counters
A Geiger counter (also known as a Geiger–Müller counter) is an electronic instrument used for detecting and measuring ionizing radiation. It is widely used in applications such as radiation dosimetry, radiological protection, experimental ph ...
, for the detection radiation across a wide variety of energies and types. The rocket also carried two movie cameras to take high altitude film of the Earth all the way to its peak height of as well as Pirani gauge
The Pirani gauge is a robust thermal conductivity gauge used for the measurement of the pressures in vacuum systems. It was invented in 1906 by Marcello Pirani.
Marcello Stefano Pirani was a German physicist working for Siemens & Halske which was ...
s to measure air densities in the upper atmosphere.[ Viking 6, launched 11 December, carried a much lighter payload, but its experiments included a battery of custom built pressure gauges. The rocket underperformed, however, only reaching a maximum altitude of .][
The first generation of Vikings reached its acme of performance with the flight of Viking 7, the sole Viking launch of 1951. Launched 7 August from White Sands, the rocket set a new world altitude record of .][
]
Second model (Vikings 8-12)
In the late spring of 1952, the Naval Research Laboratory
The United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is the corporate research laboratory for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. It was founded in 1923 and conducts basic scientific research, applied research, technological ...
team under the management of Milton Rosen prepared to launch the first second-generation Viking, Viking 8, from White Sands Missile Range
White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) is a United States Army military testing area and firing range located in the US state of New Mexico. The range was originally established as the White Sands Proving Ground on 9July 1945. White Sands National P ...
in New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...
. The new Viking design was nearly half-again as wide as its precursor, affording the highest fuel-to-weight ratio of any rocket yet developed. The tail fins no longer supported the weight of the rocket, has had previously been the case. Now, the Viking rocket rested on the base of its fuselage. This allowed the tail fins to be made much lighter, one of many ways the Viking was redesigned to carry a heavier tank without weighing more than the first Viking design.
On 6 June 1952, Viking 8 broke loose of its moorings during a static firing test. After it was allowed to fly for 55 seconds in the hope that it would clear the immediate area and thus pose no danger to ground crew, Nat Wagner, head of the "Cutoff group" delivered a command to the rocket to cease its thrust. 65 seconds later, the rocket crashed or downrange to the southeast.[
With lessons learned from the Viking 8 failure, the successful 9 December static firing of Viking 9 was followed on 15 December by a successful launch from White Sands. The rocket reached an altitude of , roughly the same as that of the first-generation Viking 7, launched in 1950. In addition to cameras that photographed the Earth during flight, Viking 9 carried a full suite of ]cosmic ray
Cosmic rays are high-energy particles or clusters of particles (primarily represented by protons or atomic nuclei) that move through space at nearly the speed of light. They originate from the Sun, from outside of the Solar System in our own ...
, ultraviolet
Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 PHz) to 400 nm (750 THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation ...
, and X-ray
An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30&nb ...
detectors, including sixteen plates of emulsion
An emulsion is a mixture of two or more liquids that are normally immiscible (unmixable or unblendable) owing to liquid-liquid phase separation. Emulsions are part of a more general class of two-phase systems of matter called colloids. Altho ...
gel for tracking the path of individual high energy particles. The experiment package was recovered intact after it had secured measurements high in the Earth's upper atmosphere.[
]
Viking 10
On 25 May 1953, Viking 10, originally planned to be the last of the Vikings, arrived at White Sands Missile Range
White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) is a United States Army military testing area and firing range located in the US state of New Mexico. The range was originally established as the White Sands Proving Ground on 9July 1945. White Sands National P ...
in New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...
. A successful static firing on 18 June cleared the way for a 30 June launch date, a schedule that had been made months prior, before the rocket had even left the Glenn L. Martin Company plant where it had been built. At the moment of liftoff, the tail of Viking 10 exploded, setting the rocket afire. Water was immediately flooded into the rocket's base in an attempt to extinguish the fire, but flames continued to burn in the East Quadrant of the firing platform. Half an hour after launch, two of the launch team under manager Milton Rosen were dispatched to put out the fire to salvage what remained of the rocket.
Their efforts were successful but then were threatened by a slow leak in the propellant tank. The vacuum created by the departing fuel was causing the tank to dimple with the danger of implosion that would cause the rocket to collapse. Lieutenant Joseph Pitts, a member of the launch team, shot a rifle round into the tank, equalizing the pressure and saving the rocket. Three hours after the attempted launch, the last of the alcohol propellant had been drained from Viking 10. The launch team was able to salvage the instrument package of cameras, including X-ray detectors, cosmic ray emulsions, and a radio-frequency mass-spectrometer, valued at tens of thousands of dollars, although there was concern that the rocket was irreparable.
A thorough investigation of the explosion began in July, but a conclusive cause could not be determined. In a report presented in September, Milton Rosen noted that a similar occurrence had not happened in more than 100 prior tests of the Viking motor. It was decided to rebuild Viking 10, and a program for closer monitoring of potential fail points was implemented for the next launch, scheduled for 1954.[ Ten months of salvage, testing, and troubleshooting followed the failed launch.
On 30 June 1953, the rebuilt rocket was once again ready for launch. A successful static firing took place at the end of April 1954, and launch was scheduled for 4 May. Control issues revealed in the static firing as well as gusty, sand-laden winds caused a delay of three days. At 10:00 AM local time, Viking 10 blasted off from its pad at the ]White Sands Missile Range
White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) is a United States Army military testing area and firing range located in the US state of New Mexico. The range was originally established as the White Sands Proving Ground on 9July 1945. White Sands National P ...
in New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...
, reaching an altitude of —a tie with the highest altitude ever reached by a first-generation Viking (Viking 7 on 7 August 1951). Data was received from the rocket for all stages of the flight, and its scientific package, including an emulsion experiment, returned the first measurement of positive ion composition at high altitudes.[
]
Final flights
Viking 11, which was ready for erection on 5 May, also had a successful static test and was ready for launch, 24 May 1954. Again, the countdown went without hold, and Viking 11, the heaviest rocket yet in the series, was launched at 10:00 AM. Forty seconds into the flight, several puffs of smoke issued from the vehicle, but these accidental excitations of the rocket's roll jets did no harm. Viking 11 ultimately reached in altitude, a record for the series, snapping the highest altitude photographs of the Earth to date. Viking 11 carried a successful emulsions experiment, measuring cosmic rays at high altitudes.[
The final Viking flight was that of Viking 12, launched 4 February 1955. Reaching an altitude of , the rocket's K-25 camera snapped an infrared picture of the Southwestern United States, from the Pacific coast to Phoenix, just after reaching its ]apogee
An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. For example, the apsides of the Earth are called the aphelion and perihelion.
General description
There are two apsides in any ell ...
.
Viking into Vanguard
The Viking series returned a bonanza of scientific information measuring temperature, pressure, density, composition and winds in the upper atmosphere Upper atmosphere is a collective term that refers to various layers of the atmosphere of the Earth above the troposphere and corresponding regions of the atmospheres of other planets, and includes:
* The mesosphere, which on Earth lies between th ...
and electron density
In quantum chemistry, electron density or electronic density is the measure of the probability of an electron being present at an infinitesimal element of space surrounding any given point. It is a scalar quantity depending upon three spatial va ...
in the ionosphere, and recording the ultraviolet
Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 PHz) to 400 nm (750 THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation ...
spectra of the Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...
,[ The success of the program, at a cost of under $6 million, suggested that, with a more powerful engine and the addition of upper stages, the Viking rocket could be made a vehicle capable of launching an Earth satellite.]
In October 1952, the General Assembly of the International Council of Scientific Unions
The International Council for Science (ICSU, after its former name, International Council of Scientific Unions) was an international non-governmental organization devoted to international cooperation in the advancement of science. Its members ...
(ICSU) adopted a proposal to undertake simultaneous observations of geophysical phenomena over the entire surface of the Earth. The International Geophysical Year (IGY), set for 1957–58, would involve the efforts of a multitude of nations in such farflung regions as the Arctic
The Arctic ( or ) is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenland), Finland, Iceland, N ...
and Antarctica
Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...
. In January 1955, Radio Moscow announced that the Soviet Union might be expected to launch a satellite in the near future. This announcement galvanized American space efforts; in the same month, the National Academy of Sciences' IGY committee established a Technical Panel on Rocketry to evaluate plans to orbit an American satellite.
On 26 May 1955, the U.S. National Security Council also endorsed a satellite program. On 8 June, United States Secretary of Defense
The United States secretary of defense (SecDef) is the head of the United States Department of Defense, the executive department of the U.S. Armed Forces, and is a high ranking member of the federal cabinet. DoDD 5100.1: Enclosure 2: a The ...
Charles Wilson directed Assistant Secretary Donald A. Quarles
Donald Aubrey Quarles (July 30, 1894 – May 8, 1959) was a Telecommunications engineering, communications engineer, senior level executive with Bell Telephone Laboratories and Western Electric, and a top official in the United States Department ...
to coordinate the implementation of a satellite program, with the United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national sec ...
providing the rocket and launch facilities, and the civilian IGY National Committee producing the satellite and its experimental package, the National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...
being intermediary between the two agencies. A committee, under the chairmanship of Homer J. Stewart of Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States.
Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA an ...
, was developed to manage the project to weigh and choose between the available satellite orbiting options. They were Project Orbiter, an Army plan to use a slightly modified Redstone (a ) range surface-to-surface missile developed the prior year) combined with upper stages to put a satellite into orbit, which could be tracked optically., and the NRL plan to develop an orbital capability for the Viking (Project Vanguard
Project Vanguard was a program managed by the United States Navy Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), which intended to launch the first artificial satellite into low Earth orbit using a Vanguard rocket. as the launch vehicle from Cape Canaveral ...
).
On 28 July, confident that a satellite could be lofted during the IGY, President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
's press secretary, James Hagerty, announced that a satellite would officially be among the United States' contributions to the IGY. The Soviets responded four days later with their own announcement of a planned IGY satellite launch.
By 9 September, the Stewart Committee had chosen Vanguard over Orbiter, citing the Navy's impressive planned Minitrack
The Minitrack Network was the first U.S. satellite tracking network to become operational, in 1957. It was used to track the flights of Sputnik, Vanguard, Explorer, and other early space efforts. Minitrack was the progenitor of Spacecraft Trackin ...
communications technology and network as well as both the civilian nature and the greater growth potential of the Viking/Vanguard rocket. The contract authorizing the construction of two more Viking rockets to continue upper atmospheric research was expanded to include development of the Vanguard rockets. The Viking was thus incorporated as the first stage of NRL's three-stage Project Vanguard
Project Vanguard was a program managed by the United States Navy Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), which intended to launch the first artificial satellite into low Earth orbit using a Vanguard rocket. as the launch vehicle from Cape Canaveral ...
vehicle which launched the second U.S. satellite in 1958. Vikings 13 and 14, substantially similar to Vikings 8 through 12, were used as suborbital test vehicles ( Vanguard TV-0 and Vanguard TV-1) before the first Vanguard vehicle, Vanguard TV-2
Vanguard TV-2, also called Vanguard Test Vehicle-Two, was the third suborbital test flight of a Vanguard rocket as part of Project Vanguard. Successful TV-2 followed the successful launch of Vanguard TV-0 a one-stage rocket launched in Decemb ...
, became available for test in the fall of 1957.['' Ordway, Frederick I.''; ''Wakeford, Ronald C.']
International Missile and Spacecraft Guide
N.Y., McGraw-Hill, 1960, p. 208
Current examples
The National Air and Space Museum contains a full-size cutaway reconstruction of Viking 12, built from original blueprints and reconstructed from parts recovered from the original rocket. The vehicle was donated by the Martin Marietta Corp in 1976 to the Smithsonian.
Table of flights
(Vikings 1–12, excepting Viking 4, were flown from White Sands Missile Range
White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) is a United States Army military testing area and firing range located in the US state of New Mexico. The range was originally established as the White Sands Proving Ground on 9July 1945. White Sands National P ...
, New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...
.) Vikings 13 and 14 were launched from Cape Canaveral.
See also
* Vanguard rocket
The Vanguard rocket was intended to be the first launch vehicle the United States would use to place a satellite into orbit. Instead, the Sputnik crisis caused by the surprise launch of Sputnik 1 led the U.S., after the failure of Vanguard TV-3 ...
References
{{Authority control
Spaceflight before 1951
1951 in spaceflight
1952 in spaceflight
1954 in spaceflight
1955 in spaceflight
Sounding rockets of the United States