Shooting The Moon - Kennedy Space Center
N 28° 31.417 W 080° 40.984
17R E 531009 N 3155249
This plaque is located in the Rocket Garden at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center.
Waymark Code: WM8JMV
Location: Florida, United States
Date Posted: 04/10/2010
Views: 13
SHOOTING THE MOON,
DREAMING OF STARS
America's new found enthusiasm for Space opened the door to an army of scientific visionaries who had dreamed of this opprtunity for generations. It wasn't just telescopes anymore. It was going there, taking notes, building the immeasurable library of knowledge we'd need to understand this mysterious environment and design the systems we'd need to make it safe for human exploration.
Pioneer 4 was our firstmission to make it to the Moon. It was the second, and last, use of the Juno II. This rocket paved the way for 33 unmanned American missions to the Moon carried by more powerful rockets.
ROCKET DATA: Juno II
Height: 23.4 meters (76.7 feet)
Diameter: 2.67 meters (105 inches)
First stage propellants: Liquid Oxigen (LOX) and Kerosene
Upperstage propellants: Solid
Lift-off thurst: 150,000 pounds
From: Wikipedia
Juno II
The Juno II was an American rocket used during the late 1950s and early 1960s. It was derived from the Jupiter missile, which was used as the first stage. Sergeant rocket motors were used as upper stages - eleven for the second stage, three for the third stage, and one for the fourth stage - the same configuration as used for the upper stages of the smaller Juno I rocket. On some launches to low Earth orbit the fourth stage was not flown, allowing the rocket to carry an additional nine kilograms of payload.
Launch history
The Juno II was mostly used to launch Pioneer and Explorer spacecraft. Ten were launched, five of which failed to reach orbit, and a sixth reached an incorrect orbit. All launches were conducted from launch complexes 5 and 26B at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.