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Booster
Unflown Vehicle
Little Joe
Airpower Park and Museum, Hampton, VA
The Little Joe was used to test the Mercury spacecraft launch Escape System by accelerating the capsule to launch velocity and simulating an abort.  The booster was produced specifically for this purpose, and consists of four Pollux or Castor motors grouped with four smaller Recruit motors.  The cross section diagrams highlighted the four larger motors, and suggested the name 'Little Joe' for the dice playing term for  a pair of twos.  During the Apollo program a larger booster, named Little Joe II, was used for similar purposes with the Apollo spacecraft.  This vehicle contains a well detailed capsule, but the paint scheme is from the early boilerplate launches.
Location: Airpower Park and Museum
Image by: Jim Gerard 3/23/2004
Loading Little Joe from image file

This image shows Little Joe before it's restoration

Image by: David Weeks

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Last Update on Tuesday, November 23, 2004

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A Field Guide to American Spacecraft
by Jim Gerard
www.americanspacecraft.com