On Tue, 26 Aug 2003, David Weinshenker wrote:
> ... (How does the throw-weight of, say,
> the Minuteman system compare to the original Atlas, which was
> used to orbit the 3000-lb Mercury spacecraft?)
Much smaller. Minuteman was practical only because of rapid progress in
miniaturized warheads.
I'm not sure you can actually put something in orbit with a Minuteman at
all. It has no coast or restart capability, and it's only about 100km up
at third-stage ignition, which is too low for a stable orbit. The only
Minuteman-based orbital launch to date used a Minotaur -- the two bottom
stages of a Minuteman *plus* the two upper stages of a Pegasus.
Henry Spencer
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