Little Joe (rocket)

Little Joe

The Little Joe 1 launch vehicle with Mercury capsule, August 1959.
Function	Uncrewed capsule testing
Manufacturer	North American Aviation
Country of origin	United States
Size
Height	17 m (55 ft)
Stages	2
Capacity
Payload to suborbital
Mass	1,400 kg (3,000 lb)
Launch history
Status	Concluded
Launch sites	Wallops Island, Virginia
Total launches	8
Success(es)	6
Failure(s)	2
Boosters
Powered by	Recruit rockets
Maximum thrust	668 kN (150,000 lbf)
Burn time	1.53 s
Propellant	solid
First stage – Sustainer
Powered by	Castor
Maximum thrust	1,036 kN (233,000 lbf)
Burn time	37 s
Propellant	Solid
[edit on Wikidata]

Little Joe was a solid-fueled booster rocket used by NASA for eight launches from 1959 to 1961 from Wallops Island, Virginia to test the launch escape system and heat shield for Project Mercury capsules, as well as the name given to the test program using the booster. The first rocket designed solely for crewed spacecraft qualifications, Little Joe was also one of the pioneer operational launch vehicles using the rocket cluster principle.

The Little Joe name has been attributed to Maxime Faget at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. He based the name on four large fins which reminded him of a slang term for a roll of four in craps.^[1]

A successor, Little Joe II, was used for flight testing of the Apollo launch escape system from 1963 to 1966.