Scout X-1 was flown seven times between August 1960 and October 1961 from
Launch Area 3 at the
Wallops Flight Facility. The maiden flight was a suborbital test of the rocket's systems, and was conducted on 2 July 1960, with the rocket launching at 00:04 GMT. Following this, a suborbital radiation experiment was successfully launched on 4 October 1960. The first orbital launch attempt, with the
S-56 satellite, was made on 4 December 1960, and ended in failure after the second stage malfunctioned. On 16 February 1961, a Scout X-1 successfully placed
Explorer 9, a reflight of the failed S-56, into Earth orbit, in the first successful orbital launch to be conducted by a
Scout rocket. The next launch attempt on 30 June 1961 carried the
S-55 satellite, but this did not reach orbit because the third stage failed to ignite. A reflight of S-55,
Explorer 13, was launched on 25 August 1961, but reached a lower than planned orbit, and was unusable. The final flight of the Scout X-1 was made on 19 October 1961, carrying
plasma and
aeronomy research payloads on a suborbital trajectory. This launch was successful. == See also ==