Flown versions Castor 1 :The Castor 1 was first used for a successful suborbital launch of a
Scout X-1 rocket on September 2, 1960. :It was long, in diameter, and had a burn time of 27 seconds. Castor 1 stages were also used as strap-on boosters for launch vehicles using
Thor first stages, including the
Delta D. (A Delta-D was used in 1964 to launch
Syncom-3, the first satellite placed in a
geostationary orbit.) Castor 1 stages were used in 141 launch attempts of Scout and Delta rockets, only 2 of which were failures. They were also used on some thrust-assisted
Thor-Agena launchers. The last launch using a Castor 1 was in 1971.
Castor 2 :The Castor 2 was an upgraded version of the Castor 1. It was first used on a Scout in 1965, and continued to be used on Scouts until the last Scout launch, in 1994. Castor 2 stages were also used as the strap-on boosters for the
Delta E, and for the Japanese-built
N-I,
N-II and
H-I rockets. It retained the same diameter as the Castor 1, and was from 5.96 m to 6.27 m in length.
Castor 4 :The Castor 4, along with its A and B variants, were expanded to 1.02 m in diameter. They were used as strap-ons on some Delta,
Delta II,
Atlas IIAS, and
Athena RTV launch vehicles. They were also planned to serve as the first stage of the Spanish
Capricornio booster, however, no such flights occurred before the project was cancelled. :Castor 4B is used in the European
Maxus Programme, with launches from
Esrange in Sweden. : Certain versions of the
H-IIA rockets flown by
JAXA used either two or four strap-on boosters developed and produced by
Alliant Techsystems. These boosters use motors which are modified versions of the Castor 4A-XL motor design. These motors are long and roughly in diameter.
Castor 30 : The CASTOR 30 motor is based on the CASTOR 120 motor, which has flown on the Taurus I, Athena I and Athena II launch vehicles. The inaugural flight of the new motor occurred in April 2013 as the second stage on the
Orbital Sciences Antares medium-lift rocket for International Space Station resupply missions. : The CASTOR 30 upper stage measures in length and in diameter, and it weighs . The motor is nominally designed as an upper stage that can function as a second or third stage as well, depending on the vehicle configuration. : The CASTOR 30XL solid rocket motor measures in length and in diameter, and it weighs approximately . The nozzle is eight feet long with a submerged design with a high performance expansion ratio (56:1) and a dual density exit cone.
Castor 120 rocket for the OCO launch :An unrelated development to the earlier Castor 1, 2 and 4, the Castor 120 is a derivative of the first-stage motor of the
MX ("Peacekeeper") missile. "120" refers to the planned weight, in thousands of pounds, of the booster at project inception. The actual product turned out lighter than this, however. It was first used as the first-stage motor of Lockheed Martin's
Athena I, and later the first and second stages of
Athena II. After a test launch in August 1995, the first launch of a customer payload took place on August 22, 1997, when an Athena was used to launch the NASA
Lewis satellite. In 2006
Orbital Sciences Corporation agreed to pay $17.5 million for the Castor 120 motors used in the
Taurus XL launch vehicles for the
Orbiting Carbon Observatory and
Glory satellites. The main solid rocket boosters (
SRB-A) of the Japanese
H-IIA launch vehicle are based on the Castor 120, and were jointly designed by ATK and
IHI Aerospace.
Proposed versions - based on Space Shuttle SRB Instead of using a
D6AC steel case and
PBAN binder like the Space Shuttle SRB, these will use the technology derived from the
GEM motors which have carbon composite cases and
HTPB binder. The carbon composite design eliminates the factory joint common on all Space Shuttle SRBs.
Castor 300 : The CASTOR 300 motor is a proposed booster based on the
Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster and was intended to be used as the second stage of the
OmegA. The inaugural flight of the new motor was suggested to occur as soon as 2021. : Based on a 1-segment Space Shuttle SRB, the Castor 300 measures in length and in diameter, and it weighs approximately .
Castor 600 : The CASTOR 600 motor is a proposed booster based on the
Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster and was intended to be used as the first stage of the
OmegA's small configurations. The inaugural flight of the new motor was suggested to occur as soon as 2021. : Based on a 2-segment Space Shuttle SRB, the Castor 600 measures in length and in diameter, and it weighs approximately .
Castor 1200 : The CASTOR 1200 motor is a proposed booster based on the
Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster and was intended to be used as the first stage of the
OmegA's heavy configuration. The inaugural flight of the new motor was suggested to occur in the 2020s. It has also been proposed to replace the 5 segment RSRMVs on the Block 2
Space Launch System. : Based on a 4-segment Space Shuttle SRB, the Castor 1200 measures in length and in diameter, and it weighs approximately . == See also ==