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9, 10. AGENA Space Vehicle
Since the start of the nation's space program. Agenas as
satellites and second stage boosters have participated in more
than half of all successful American space launch efforts and
for more than four and one half years they recorded 100%
successful attainment of orbit. Agenas have passed the 300
launch mark from the eastern (Cape Canaveral) and western
(Vandenberg AFB) test ranges in both Air Force and National
Aeronautics and Space Administration missions, and made the
first successful return of an object from orbit. Agenas play key
roles in classified military unmanned space launches. They have
made major contributions to NASA programs including Mariner,
Lunar Orbiter, Nimbus, SERT II, and Gemini. Photo (9) shows a
typical Agena launch with the spacecraft mounted atop a giant
booster rocket.
Photo (10) of the Agena in space was made during the Gemini VIII
program when it was used as a target vehicle for the first
successful rendezvous in space between two spacecraft. This
provided part of the basic NASA foundation of skills that led to
the Apollo program, culminating with man's historic landing on
the moon July 20, 1969.
Agena is a three-axis stabilized spacecraft, capable of precise
orientation in space, with an extremely sophisticated structure
combining great strength with minimum weight. Agenas are
tailored to individual missions and thus vary widely in size and
weight, but a typical mission would incorporate an empty Agena
weighing 1220 pounds, 5 feet in diameter and 20 feet long. This
Agena would then be loaded with 13,390 pounds of propellant
winch would produce a thrust of 16,100 pounds.
Agenas have established a wide variety of "firsts' because of
their dependability and long period of service. The first Agena
flew in 1959. It was first through the years to establish a
circular orbit, first to establish a polar orbit, first with
three-axis stabilization, first to carry a nuclear reactor power
supply into space, and so on, leading Agena to be nicknamed 'the
workhorse of space." |
