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📊 Analysis

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Thor Agena A

Retired

McDonnell Douglas

Thor-Agena was a series of orbital launch vehicles. The rockets used Thor first stages and Agena second stages. They are thus cousins of the more-famous Thor-Deltas, which founded the Delta rocket family.

Key figures

Total launches
15
Successes
9
Failures
6
Success rate
60.0 %
Success streak
3
Maiden flight
Jan 21, 1959
Launch cost
$11 Mio.
Reusable
No
Shortest launch interval ⓘ
6d
Planned launches
0
Thor, Thor-Agena family total
142 launches · 120 successes · 22 failures (7 variants)

🧐 Data check

Automatic plausibility checks — anomalies are surfaced transparently here:

  • ℹ️The figures above apply only to the “Thor Agena A” variant. The Launch Library counts each variant separately — the Thor, Thor-Agena family totals 142 launches across 7 variants.

Technology

Length
28 m
Diameter
2.44 m
Launch mass
53 t
Liftoff thrust
667 kN
Stages
2
LEO (low Earth orbit)
250 kg

Launches per year

of which in our database: 15

1959: 5 Successes1959: 3 Failures819591960: 4 Successes1960: 3 Failures71960
Successes Failures Other/planned

History & events

  1. Feb 28, 1959🚀 Maiden flightDiscoverer 1View launch →
  2. Feb 28, 1959💥 FailureDiscoverer 1View launch →
  3. Jun 3, 1959💥 FailureDiscoverer 3View launch →
  4. Jun 25, 1959💥 FailureDiscoverer 4View launch →
  5. Feb 4, 1960💥 FailureDiscoverer 9View launch →
  6. Feb 19, 1960💥 FailureDiscoverer 10View launch →
  7. Jun 29, 1960💥 FailureDiscoverer 12View launch →

Sources