Rocket Engine, Liquid Fuel, Surveyor Vernier, also Designated TD-339
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Object Details
- Manufacturer
- Reaction Motors Div., Thiokol Chemical Corp.
- Summary
- This is a vernier rocket motor for the Surveyor unmanned lunar landing probe, America's first spacecraft to soft-land on the Moon. It provided small bursts of thrust for mid-course trajectory correction maneuvers and attitude and velocity control before and during the landing. It produced 30-104 pounds of thrust. For protection from solar radiation, exposed surfaces were coated with very thin gold plate.
- The Reaction Motors Division of the Thiokol Chemical Corporation developed the vernier which was first used operationally on Suveyor 1 that soft-landed on the Moon in 1966. Five Surveyors out of seven launched were successfully landed on the Moon up to 1968.
- The motor was donated to the Smithsonian by the Jet Propulsion Lab in 1970.
- Credit Line
- Transferred from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- ca. 1963-1968
- Inventory Number
- A19700233000
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Type
- PROPULSION-Rocket Engines
- Materials
- Steel
- Plastic
- Aluminum
- Synthetic
- Inorganics
- Glass
- Copper Alloy
- Coating
- Unknown Metal
- Textile
- Dimensions
- 3-D: 33.5 × 21.6 × 14cm, 2.9kg (1 ft. 1 3/16 in. × 8 1/2 in. × 5 1/2 in., 6.4lb.)
- Country of Origin
- United States of America
- See more items in
- National Air and Space Museum Collection
- National Air and Space Museum
- Record ID
- nasm_A19700233000
- Metadata Usage (text)
- Not determined
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/nv9f97163ad-68b9-4d4a-8c39-074077972cb8
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