Which booster was used to send the 1st American into orbit?
Orion abort modes NASA's newest spacecraft, the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV), will be the first American spacecraft since Project Apollo to use an escape system in the event of a launch abort, something its predecessor, the Space Shuttle, had for only its first four orbital test flights in 1981-1982. Like the Apollo Command-Service Module (CSM), the Orion CEV will use the Launch escape system (LES), a solid-fueled tractor rocket that will be able to pull the Orion crew module away from a malfunctioning Space Launch System (SLS) rocket during the initial launch phase. Based on the launch escape system found on the Soviet/Russian Soyuz spacecraft, the LAS, designed and manufactured by ATK for the Orion CEV, will be larger than the Soyuz version and will have more thrust than the Atlas 109-D booster that carried astronaut John Glenn into orbit in 1962.
Fractional Orbital Bombardment System The Fractional Orbital Bombardment System (FOBS) was a Soviet ICBM program in the 1960s that after launch would go into a low Earth orbit and would then de-orbit for an attack. The development of the FOBS was one of the first steps taken by the Soviet Union to utilize space for the delivery of nuclear warheads. The primary objective of the FOBS was to bypass the weapon detection systems in the United States. In order to accomplish this, the FOBS was designed to briefly place nuclear warheads into the Earth’s orbit. After orbiting for a short period of time, the bombs would deploy and fall to their targets from space. The system shares many similarities with the concept of kinetic bombardment systems, with the exception of the use of a nuclear warhead as opposed to an inert projectile. This weapon system also had no range limit and the orbital flight path would not reveal the target location. This would allow a path to North America over the South Pole, hitting targets from the south, which is the opposite direction from which NORAD early warning systems are oriented.