Skip to main content

Command Guidance of Telstar Launch Vehicle

01 September 1963

New Image

The Telstar I satellite was launched into orbit by a three-stage Delta vehicle 011 July 10, 1962, at the Atlantic Missile Range. The Bell Telephone Laboratories command guidance system, developed for the Air Force, was employed to guide the Delta vehicle. The guidance system is shown in Fig. 1. The missile-borne equipment, housed in the second stage of the Delta vehicle, serves as a radar beacon to provide return pulses to the tracking radar and as the receiving portion of the command data link between the ground and the missile. The tracking radar functions as the transmitting portion of the data link and also serves as a sensor to determine the slant range, azimuth angle, and elevation angle of the missile during its flight. The precision tracking radar and the missileborne guidance package were manufactured by the Western Electric Co. The guidance computer was designed and manufactured by the Univac Division of the Sperry R a n d Corporation. The three-stage Delta missile, designed by the Douglas Aircraft Company, consists of two liquid propellant stages and a solid propellant third stage. The powered flight portion of the Telstar satellite trajectory is shown in Fig. 2. The guidance system transmits corrective pitch and yaw steering commands during first- and second-stage powered flight. Second-stage engine cutoff is ordered by the guidance system when the 2153