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Rocket file · LV-389

Thor Able II

McDonnell Douglas · Thor · RETIRED

Thor Able II is an expendable launch vehicle built by McDonnell Douglas. It stands 27.3 m tall, first flew on 23 January 1959. It has flown 2 times with 1 successes, a success rate of 50.0%. It has nothing on the Launch Library 2 schedule right now.

Specification

Vehicle spec sheet

ON FILE
Height27.3 m
Diameter2.4 m
Payload to LEONOT ON FILE
Payload to GTONOT ON FILE
Maiden flight23 January 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

ON RECORD
Total flights2
Successful1
Failed1
Success rate50.0%
Landing attempts0
Landing successN/A
Scheduled0
VariantAble II

About Thor Able II

American orbital launch vehicle. Thor with Able stage derived from Vanguard second stage.

Upcoming flights

Manifest

EMPTY

Thor Able II is retired, and no flight is filed.

All upcoming launches

From NASA's public image library and Wikimedia Commons. Each photo shows the credit its licence asks for and links back to where it came from.

Thor-Able II Transit 1A
Thor-Able II Transit 1AU.S. Air Force (per [1] ) · public domainWikimedia Commons ↗
Thor-Able II Tiros 1
Thor-Able II Tiros 1NASA/USAF · public domainWikimedia Commons ↗
Juno II, Rocket Park Kennedy Space Center Florida 2007 (cropped)
Juno II, Rocket Park Kennedy Space Center Florida 2007 (cropped)gvgoebel · CC BY-SA 2.0Wikimedia Commons ↗

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Common questions

How many times has Thor Able II flown?
2 times, with 1 successes and 1 failures.
What is Thor Able II's success rate?
50.0%. That's 1 successful flights out of 2 attempts.
How much can Thor Able II lift to orbit?
Launch Library 2 doesn't list a payload figure for Thor Able II.
Is Thor Able II reusable?
No. Launch Library 2 lists Thor Able II as expendable, so no stage is recovered to fly again.