Little Joe is an expendable suborbital vehicle built by North American Aviation. It stands 17.0 m tall, first flew on 21 August 1959. It has flown 8 times with 3 successes, a success rate of 37.5%. It has nothing on the Launch Library 2 schedule right now.
Specification
Vehicle spec sheet
OPS-12/SPEC
ON FILE
Height17.0 m
DiameterNOT ON FILE
Payload to LEONOT ON FILE
Payload to GTONOT ON FILE
Maiden flight21 August 1959
ReusableNo, expendable
Launch costNOT ON FILE
StatusRETIRED
As listed by Launch Library 2. The cost is Launch Library’s figure, not a quoted price. Figures for rockets outside the sixty most-flown were last read on 2026-11-05.
Flight record
Reliability
OPS-12/STAT
ON RECORD
Total flights8
Successful3
Failed5
Success rate37.5%
Landing attempts0
Landing successN/A
Scheduled0
About Little Joe
Little Joe was a solid-fueled booster rocket used by NASA for eight launches from 1959-1960 from Wallops Island, Virginia to test the launch escape system and heat shield for Project Mercury capsules.
