Centaur | launch vehicle | Britannica (original) (raw)

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combination with Atlas rocket

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  In Atlas
  The Atlas-Centaur rocket combined an Atlas first stage, which burned kerosene fuel, with a Centaur second stage, fueled with liquid hydrogen; it was the first rocket to use liquid hydrogen as fuel.
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launch vehicle stages

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  In launch vehicle: Upper stages
  …and Titan launch vehicles, is Centaur. This was the first U.S. rocket stage to employ cryogenic propellant. The first use of the Atlas-Centaur launch vehicle was to send Surveyor spacecraft to the Moon in 1966 and 1967; it flew many subsequent missions atop an Atlas first stage. When combined with…
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LCROSS

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  In LCROSS
  2-ton Centaur upper stage of the Atlas rocket and flew by the Moon on June 23. It and the Centaur upper stage entered an orbit in which they completed one revolution around Earth in approximately 36 days. On October 8 the Centaur upper stage separated from…
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