11 Facts About RM-81 Agena

On some missions, the payload was built directly into the RM-81 Agena, which provided it with electric power, communications and three-axis stabilization.

The RM-81 Agena was upgraded twice from the original RM-81 Agena A in order to support heavier and more sophisticated satellites, such as Corona spacecraft with multiple and more powerful cameras.

RM-81 Agena name was suggested by the Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency for the star Beta Centauri, known as RM-81 Agena, because this upper stage would "ignite in the sky".

Until 1959, the RM-81 Agena was known as the Discoverer Vehicle or Bell Hustler.

Attitude control of the horizontal flying RM-81 Agena was provided by an inertial reference package with three gyroscopes, two horizon sensors, and micro-jets using a nitrogen-freon mixture of cold gas.

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The RM-81 Agena-A was propelled by a Bell 8048 engine, which could produce 69 kilonewtons of thrust for two minutes.

Thor-RM-81 Agena flew for the last time in 1972 when it launched a KH-4B satellite.

The last Atlas-RM-81 Agena used an RM-81 Agena D stage atop a refurbished Atlas F missile to launch Seasat in 1978.

RM-81 Agena-D was used to launch KH-7 GAMBIT and KH-8 Gambit 3 reconnaissance satellites, three Mariner probes to Venus and the two Mariner space probes to Mars.

On later missions, the RM-81 Agena's engine was fired while the Gemini spacecraft was docked, in order to boost the spacecraft to a higher orbit, and to bring it back again.

RM-81 Agena-2000 was intended as a modernized RM-81 Agena, and would have been used on the Atlas V Light Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle.