Conestoga-1620 (original) (raw)
Please make a donation to support Gunter's Space Page.
Thank you very much for visiting Gunter's Space Page. I hope that this site is useful and informative for you.
If you appreciate the information provided on this site, please consider supporting my work by making a simple and secure donation via PayPal. Please help to run the website and keep everything free of charge. Thank you very much.
Conestoga-1620
(METEOR) [EER]
The Conestoga-1620 was the only version ever flown of the modular Conestoga-1000 Series launch vehicle designed by EER.
While the Castor-4B formed the basic vehicle in multi-unit parallel mountings, different three axis stabilized upper-stages were planned, all based on Thiokol Star motors. A small hydrazine powered HMACS (Hydrazine Maneuvering and Attitude Control System) stage could also be added for increased performance and accuracy. More configurations, featuring stretched Castor motors were planned. After the first vehicle failed and the MSTI 5 satellite planned for the second mission was cancelled, the company ran out of money and the program was shelved.
Encoding system:
| Version | Stage 1 | Stage 2 | Stage 3 | Stage 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conestoga-1620 | 2 × Castor-4B 2 × Castor-4A | 2 × Castor-4B | Castor-4B | Star-48V |
| Performance (kg) | LEO | LPEO | SSO | GTO | GEO | MolO | IP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conestoga-1620 | 1179 | 1000 | - |
No: TNo Type Date LS Payload
1 1 Conestoga-1620 23.10.1995 WI LA-0A F METEOR
Flight 1: self-destructed at 45 seconds after faulty navigation data produced extensive nozzle movements and depleted the TVC
Launch sites:
WI = Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Virginia, USA 
F Failure