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Thor DM-21 Ablestar

Retired

United States Air Force

The Thor-Ablestar, or Thor Able-Star, also known as Thor-Epsilon was an early American expendable launch system consisting of a PGM-17 Thor missile, with an Ablestar upper stage. It was a member of the Thor family of rockets, and was derived from the Thor-Able.

Key figures

Total launches
19
Successes
13
Failures
6
Success rate
68.4 %
Success streak
5
Maiden flight
Apr 13, 1960
Reusable
No
Shortest launch interval ⓘ
46d 21h
Planned launches
0
Thor family total
29 launches · 22 successes · 7 failures (4 variants)

🧐 Data check

Automatic plausibility checks — anomalies are surfaced transparently here:

  • ℹ️The figures above apply only to the “Thor DM-21 Ablestar” variant. The Launch Library counts each variant separately — the Thor family totals 29 launches across 4 variants.

Technology

Length
29 m
Diameter
1.44 m
Launch mass
51 t
Liftoff thrust
760 kN
Stages
2
LEO (low Earth orbit)
150 kg

Launches per year

of which in our database: 19

1960: 3 Successes1960: 2 Failures519601961: 2 Successes1961: 1 Failures319611962: 1 Successes1962: 2 Failures319621963: 2 Successes219631964: 2 Successes1964: 1 Failures319641965: 3 Successes31965
Successes Failures Other/planned

History & events

  1. Apr 13, 1960🚀 Maiden flightTransit 1BView launch →
  2. Aug 18, 1960💥 FailureCourier 1AView launch →
  3. Nov 30, 1960💥 FailureTransit 3AView launch →
  4. Feb 22, 1961💥 FailureTransit 3B & LOFTI-1View launch →
  5. Jan 24, 1962💥 Failure5 Payloads RideshareView launch →
  6. May 10, 1962💥 FailureANNA 1AView launch →
  7. Apr 21, 1964💥 FailureTransit-5BN 3View launch →

Sources