The Redstone was a single stage, liquid fueled (alcohol and liquid oxygen) surface-to-surface missile with a range of 175 to 200 miles. The first flight test occurred 20 August 1953. In June 1958, the Redstone became the first large American ballistic missile to be deployed overseas. The missile was declared obsolete 25 June 1964 and officially retired 30 October 1964.
Launch of Redstone.
The Redstone was 69 feet 4 inches (21.13 m) in length and could be armed with either a 1 megaton or 3.75 megaton thermonuclear warhead. The fuel used was Alcohol/LOX with an engine burn time of approximately 155 seconds. It used an inertial guidance system.
The Redstone was used in Project Mercury. Mercury-Redstone was
83 feet 4 inches (25.4 m) in length. The Mercury program launches were:
- Mercury-Redstone
1, reaching the incredible altitude of 4 inches.
- Mercury-Redstone
1A, a successful unmanned suborbital flight.
- Mercury-Redstone
2, the suborbital flight of Ham the
chimpanzee.
- Mercury-Redstone BD, booster development test.
- Freedom
7, the suborbital flight of
Alan Shepard.
- Liberty Bell
7, the suborbital flight of
Gus Grissom.
Launch of Freedom 7
The first U.S. satellite, Explorer I, was launched 31 January 1958 by a Jupiter-C rocket. The Jupiter-C was a 4-stage rocket with a modified Redstone as the first stage. The three upper stages were solid propellant rockets.
Early launch of a Jupiter-C
Besides the Jupiter-C and Mercury Redstone, descendents of the original Redstone are the Juno I and the Redstone Sparta.
Juno I, aka Juno, was a minor variation of the Jupiter-C.
The Sparta was an Australian orbital launch vehicle based on the Redstone and used to launch Wresat 1 (Weapons Research Establishment Satellite) on 29 November 1967.
Additional resources:
Encyclopedia
Astronautica - Redstone
Marshall Space Flight Center
NOTE: There can be some name confusion. There was also a Jupiter, and a derivative Juno II. These are distinct from the Jupiter-C and Juno/Juno I.
