Little Joe I  &  Little Joe II

Two different LV's for flight-tests of the Mercury and Apollo capsule systems

 

  Little Joe I (Mercury)
Little Joe I was an unmanned solid-fueled booster rocket used for eight launches from 1959–1960 from Wallops Island, Virginia to test the launch escape system and heat shield for Project Mercury capsules. Little Joe I was a single-stage rocket which used engines developed for the Recruit rocket, and Castor or Pollux motors, developed by Thiokol.


 



Castor XM33 (diam. 79 cm)

            

   

                     Recruit XM19 motor (diam. 23 cm)
 

Vehicle

Launch date

Propulsion

 Liftoff thrust (kN)

 Burn time nom. (sec)

 Abort after sec (Mach)

 LJ-1

21.08.1959

4x Pollux XM33

4x Recruit XM19E1

 1035.6 + 667.2

 = 1,702.8

 37

 1.5  

LJ-6

04.10.1959

 

LJ-1A

04.11.1959

2x Pollux XM33

    517.8 + 667.2

 = 1,185.0  

LJ-2

04.12.1959

4x Castor XM33E8

 1,035.6 + 667.2

 = 1,702.8  

LJ-1B

21.01.1960

2x Pollux XM33

    517.8 + 667.2

= 1,185.0  

LJ-5

08.11.1960

 

LJ-5A

18.03.1961

4x Castor XM33E8

 1,035.6 + 667.2

 = 1,702.8  

LJ-5B

28.04.1961

 

 

  Little Joe II (Apollo)
Little Joe II was an unmanned solid-fueled booster rocket used from 1963–66 for five tests of the Apollo spacecraft Launch Escape System (LES), and to verify the performance of the Command Module parachute recovery system in abort mode. Little Joe II was a single-stage rocket which used a booster motor developed for the Recruit rocket, and a sustainer motor developed for the Algol-1D stage of the Scout rocket family. The rockets were launched from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.


        


         



               

   

                            Algol-1D motor (diam. 102 cm)
 

Vehicle

Launch date

Propulsion

 Liftoff thrust

Burn time (nom.)

Abort after

Booster

Sustainer

 kN

 sec

sec (Mach)

12-50-1

QTV

28.08.1963

1x Algol-1D

6x Recruit XM19E1

-

 445.1 + 1,000.8 (=1,445.9)

 42

1.5 -

12-50-2

A-001

13.05.1964

-

28.4 (0.94)

12-51-1

A-002

08.12.1964

2x Algol-1D

4x Recruit XM19E1

-

 890.2 + 667.2 (=1,557.4)

35.7 (1.56)

12-51-2

A-003

19.05.1965

3x Algol-1D

-

3x Algol-1D*

 1,335.3

26.3 failure

12-51-3

A-004

20.04.1966

2x Algol-1D

5x Recruit XM19E1

2x Algol-1D**

 890.2 + 834.0 (=1,724.2

73.7 (2.43)

                   *   Ingnition after 36    sec ?
                   ** Ingnition after 36.4 sec