Ares ICBM
Missile · USA
Original archive entry. The text, images and links below are kept as they were written.
American intercontinental ballistic missile. The Ares single-stage, liquid-propellant ICBM was the objective of propulsion studies at both Aerojet and Rocketdyne.
The objective was to attain a high enough specific impulse through use of high chamber pressure and a deployable nozzle extension to obtain intercontinental or orbital performance using a single rocket stage. The project was halted when Secretary of Defense McNamara decreed that all future ICBM's would only use solid propellant.
LEO Payload: 4,000 kg (8,800 lb) to a 160 km orbit at 28.50 degrees.