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Launch Vehicle

Redstone

United States

An American liquid-fueled launch vehicle adapted from the U.S. Army's Redstone ballistic missile, developed under Wernher von Braun's team. Its Mercury-Redstone variant carried Alan Shepard on Freedom 7 in May 1961, the first American spaceflight, a suborbital hop that opened the crewed side of the U.S. space program.

Facts
Vehicle Class
Single-stage expendable suborbital launch vehicle 2
Manufacturer
Chrysler Corporation 2
First Flight Date
1961-05-05 1
Date of the first crewed Mercury-Redstone flight, Freedom 7; the Redstone missile itself first flew as a ballistic missile in 1953.
Status
Retired; flew six Mercury-program missions, two crewed, before Project Mercury moved to the larger Atlas launch vehicle for orbital flights. 1
Height (m)
25.4 2
Stages
1 2
Classification
Vehicle Class
Crewed Spacecraft Launch Vehicle 1
Status
Status (category)
Retired 1
Connections

Has Vehicle Class

Human-Rating Certification, Concepts

Operated By

NASA, Space Agencies and Companies
Source NASA History Office
In the Other Atlases

Manufactured By

Chrysler Corporation

Also in Business Atlas: the manufacturer of this subject.

Sources
1. NASA History Office
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
  • https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/marshall/mercury-redstone-launch-vehicle/
    The Redstone was designed as surface-to-surface ballistic missile with an original range of 500 miles that was later reduced to 200 miles.
  • redstone-rocket, entity description, vehicle kind (crewed-spacecraft)
    Its Mercury-Redstone variant carried Alan Shepard on Freedom 7 in May 1961, the first American spaceflight, a suborbital hop that opened the crewed side of the U.
  • Operated By: NASA
View the Source
2. Encyclopedia Astronautica
  • http://astronautix.com/r/redstone.html
    Redstone was the first large liquid rocket developed in the US using German V-2 technology.
  • Includes: Juno I, Encyclopedia Astronautica: Juno I entry
Wikipedia: Redstone (rocket family)
In Group: Early American Missile-Derived and Small Launchers, Lead sentence
Quote, In Group: Early American Missile-Derived and Small Launchers, Lead sentence
The Redstone family of rockets consisted of a number of American ballistic missiles, sounding rockets and expendable launch vehicles operational during the 1950s and 1960s.
View the Source

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