An Atlas vehicle is shown as it is raised into its launch gantry. This Atlas attempted to launch a Mercury spacecraft (without any astronauts aboard) into orbital flight. The launch vehicle developed 360,000 pounds of thrust and burned RP-1, a kerosene-like fuel, and liquid oxygen. It was about 60 feet in length and 10 feet in diameter at the tank section. This was the first attempt by NASA to put a Mercury spacecraft into Earth orbit. Unfortunately, this Atlas exploded at launch. Atlas was designed to launch payloads into low Earth orbit, geosynchronous transfer orbit or geosynchronous orbit. NASA first launched Atlas as a space launch vehicle in 1958. Project SCORE, the first communications satellite that transmitted President Eisenhower's pre-recorded Christmas speech around the world, was launched on an Atlas. For all three robotic lunar exploration programs, Atlas was used. Atlas/ Centaur vehicles launched Mariner and Pioneer planetary probes. The current operational Atlas II family has a 100% mission success rating. For more information about Atlas, please see Chapter 2 in Roger Launius and Dennis Jenkins' book To Reach the High Frontier published by The University Press of Kentucky in 2002.
