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Atlas H
Part of Atlas
Atlas H / Atlas I
Atlas H / Atlas I
Atlas I. Atlas H was similar but with smaller-diameter fairing.
Credit: © Mark Wade
American orbital launch vehicle. Atlas H used the Atlas first stage developed for the Atlas G vehicle. It was flown without the Centaur upper stage.

Status: Retired 1987. First Launch: 1983-02-09. Last Launch: 1987-05-15. Number: 5 . Payload: 3,630 kg (8,000 lb). Thrust: 1,939.30 kN (435,972 lbf). Gross mass: 150,540 kg (331,880 lb). Height: 27.00 m (88.00 ft). Diameter: 3.05 m (10.00 ft). Apogee: 185 km (114 mi).

The Atlas H vehicles launched from Vandenberg AFB used a radio guidance system that was based on a modification of the General Electric Radio Tracking System (GERTS), originally employed on the Atlas D. In fact, the GERTS guidance used for space launch employed one of the original radar stations used for the Atlas D and even used some actual Atlas D components in its Pulse Beacon Decoder, the vehicle's X-band radio transponder. Newer solid state computers were used to run the guidance software and were interfaced with the radar; eventually they were made redundant, although with a human operator charged with detecting failure.

GERTS was a complex, glitch-prone system, its only saving graces being that it was both the cheapest guidance system around and the most reliable, operating for almost 30 years without one flight failure and at a per-flight cost an order of magnitude below that of an inertial guidance system.

LEO Payload: 3,630 kg (8,000 lb) to a 185 km orbit. Payload: 2,255 kg (4,971 lb) to a GTO. Launch Price $: 50.000 million in 1994 dollars.

Stage Data - Atlas H

More at: Atlas H.
Family: orbital launch vehicle. Country: USA. Engines: LR105-7, LR89-7. Spacecraft: NOSS, NOSS-Subsat, LIPS. Launch Sites: Vandenberg, Vandenberg SLC3E. Stages: Atlas MA-5, Atlas G/H/I. Agency: Convair.
1983 February 9 - . 13:47 GMT - . Launch Site: Vandenberg. Launch Complex: Vandenberg SLC3E. LV Family: Atlas. Launch Vehicle: Atlas H.
1983 June 9 - . 23:23 GMT - . Launch Site: Vandenberg. Launch Complex: Vandenberg SLC3E. LV Family: Atlas. Launch Vehicle: Atlas H.
1984 February 5 - . 18:44 GMT - . Launch Site: Vandenberg. Launch Complex: Vandenberg SLC3E. LV Family: Atlas. Launch Vehicle: Atlas H.
1986 February 9 - . 10:06 GMT - . Launch Site: Vandenberg. Launch Complex: Vandenberg SLC3E. LV Family: Atlas. Launch Vehicle: Atlas H.
1987 May 15 - . 15:45 GMT - . Launch Site: Vandenberg. Launch Complex: Vandenberg SLC3E. LV Family: Atlas. Launch Vehicle: Atlas H.
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