Launch Vehicles
Atlas
United States
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An American launch vehicle family derived from the Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile, the first U.S. ICBM. Its Mercury-Atlas variant carried John Glenn on Friendship 7 in February 1962, the first American orbital spaceflight, and later Atlas-Agena and Atlas-Centaur variants launched planetary probes and reconnaissance satellites for decades.
Facts
Vehicle ClassMedium-lift expendable launch vehicle 1 ManufacturerConvair (General Dynamics) 1 First Flight DateDate of the first crewed Mercury-Atlas flight, Friendship 7; the Atlas missile itself first flew in 1957. StatusRetired in its original ICBM-derived configurations; its name and stage-and-a-half heritage continued through Atlas II and III before evolving into the unrelated-airframe Atlas V. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Sources
1. Encyclopedia Astronautica
http://astronautix.com/a/atlas.htmlQuote, http://astronautix.com/a/atlas.html
The Atlas rocket, originally developed as America's first ICBM, was the basis for most early American space exploration and was that country's most successful medium-lift commercial launch vehicle.
2. NASA History Office
National Aeronautics and Space Administrationhttps://www.nasa.gov/mission/mercury-atlas-6-friendship-7/Quote, https://www.nasa.gov/mission/mercury-atlas-6-friendship-7/
An Atlas launch vehicle propelled a Mercury spacecraft into Earth orbit and enabled astronaut John Glenn to circle Earth three times.
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