JATO (Jet Assisted Take-Off) rockets came in many types and were used to shorten the takeoff of aircraft in short field or overload conditions. They were among the first practical applications of rocketry, and much early development of rocket technology by JPL, Aerojet, Goddard, and others was devoted to JATO applications.

The American Interplanetary Society, later the American Rocket Society (ARS), founded in New York City by David Lasser, G. Edward Pendray, Fletcher Pratt, and nine others, for the "promotion of interest in and experimentation toward interplanetary expeditions and travel.". The ARS launched a series of small experimental rockets in the 1930's.

Johannes Winkler built and flew a number of pioneering rockets in Germany and was the first President of the VfR. After the failure of his HW-2 rocket he returned to his old job at Junkers, and then worked for the government Luftforschungsanstalt (Aeronautical Research Institute) during World War II. Although he designed a number of JATO units and sounding rockets, none were ever put into production. He died at Braunschweig-Querum on 27 December 1947.

Crew: 1
Engines: 1 * 680hp Junkers Jumo 210Da
Wing Span: 11.50m Length: 9.00m Height: 3.70m Wing Area: 23.20m2
Empty Weight: 1680kg
Speed: 488km/h Ceiling: 8000m

The rocket-powered Messerschmitt Me-163 was the world's first and only operational pure rocket fighter and represented the culmination of Alexander Lippisch's years of research in rocketplanes, tail-less aircraft, and delta wings. As a weapon, the Me-163 had tremendous speed but very limited range. However the concepts developed by Lippisch contributed to the Space Shuttle and Buran orbiters of a quarter century later.

The JPL-Ordnance Wac was the first American rocket to escape the earth's atmosphere. The technology developed here would lead to the Viking sounding rocket, the Vanguard satellite launcher, the Titan ICBM, and (via Chinese rocket experts expelled from the US in the 1950's) to the Chinese Long March family.

The US Navy's satellite launcher project competed with the Army's Jupiter-C, the Air Force Atlas, and the civilian Vanguard. Air-launched satellite launch vehicle, and anti-satellite versions, tested by the US Navy shortly after Sputnik. One may have achieved orbit.

Suborbital. Unmanned Project Mercury spacecraft launched by modified Redstone booster (MR-1) in a suborbital trajectory, impacting 235 miles downrange after reaching an altitude of 135 miles and a speed of near 4,200 mph. Capsule was recovered about 50 minutes after firing.The objective was to qualify the spacecraft for a primate flight scheduled shortly thereafter. Apart from the launch vehicle cutoff velocity being slightly higher than normal, all flight sequences were satisfactory.

In the 1960's Bell Aerosystems caught the public imagination with a series of rocket and jet-powered rocket belts. Rocket belt-equipped fliers became a symbol of the future and a fixture at World Fairs, football games, etc. But the technology was too expensive and limited to ever be adopted for military or civilian terrestrial purposes.

In 1961 the Air Force completed studies on a family of advanced heavy-lift launch vehicles for use in the late 1960's and on. The smallest identified member of this family, selected to place the Air Force Lunex lunar lander re-entry vehicle in a low earth orbit for initial tests, was the A-410. This evidently consisted of a smallish Lox/LH2 stage supplemented by solid fuel booster rockets.

The AB-825 represented a medium launch vehicle of the USAF 1961 Space Launch System family. The AB-825 would have conducted earth orbit tests of partially-fuelled Lunex lunar lander stages, and also have boosted the Lunex manned glider on circumlunar test flights. It consisted of the 'A' stage, evidently somewhere in size between the Centaur and Saturn IV, the 'B' stage with a single J-2 engine, and some solid fuel booster motors.

NASA, not the Air Force, received the task of going to the moon and building large boosters. But the Saturn series was abandoned, while the BC-2720 resembles very much the Shuttle configuration. Perhaps if things had been different...

As a result of TRW's review of the Truax/Aerojet Sea Dragon, TRW became so interested in the concept that they undertook studies of their own, which resulted in a design that became known as the 'Big Dumb Booster'. They proposed structural approaches that were even more conservative than Aerojet's, e.g., the use of T-180 steel instead of maraging steel, which would result in even heavier and cheaper tankage. TRW finally obtained USAF funding for fabrication of stage sections and demonstration of scaled-up versions of the TRW pump-fed Apollo Lunar Module ascent engine. The design promised low cost access to space using low technology (steel stages built to low tolerances in shipyards, pressure-fed engines, and low cost storable propellants). But yet again neither NASA or USAF showed interest in true cheap access to space.

Britain's only indigenous launch vehicle. Used unique propellant combination and large number of simple motors. Black Arrow was a three stage vehicle. The first stage had an 8 chamber layout with 4 pairs of Gamma engines gimballed as with Black Knight giving thrust in all axes. The second stage had two Gamma chambers with extended nozzles to give full expansion in vacuum. Both engines were gimballed to provide thrust in three axes. The third stage for Black Arrow was a Waxwing solid rocket motor manufactured by RPE Westcott.

German project, using Libyan funds with flight test in Zaire, for production of missiles/satellite launchers using clusters of huge numbers of low cost, pressure fed liquid fuel units. Configuration shown ('Centaur class') would have launched 10,000 kg payload to LEO using 625 (!) of the $ 8300 units (1980 prices). Project, seen as cover for ballistic missile project, squelched by US and German governments. 'Minimum satellite' launch vehicle would have used 81 half-length units.

Satellite launcher derived from Jericho II MRBM, essentially identical to South African RSA-3. NEXT was a variant with an improved upper stage for proposed launch from Wallops Island, USA (launch from Israel is only possible into retrograde orbits since due East launch would be over territory of adjacent countries).

Iraqi space launch vehicle/ICBM based on clustering of Scud tactical missiles. Canadian rocket scientist Gerald Bull was allegedly killed by Israeli agents not for his work on the supergun, but rather for his much more damaging assistance to the Iraqis in doing the dynamic calculations for the Tamouz.

The Dolphin hybrid rocket (solid fuel and liquid oxygen oxidizer) was built by Starstruck (formerly ARC Technology), a predecessor to AMROC. The Dolphin included not only innovative propulsion technology but was also launched from a floating launch cannister at sea. One test article of the hybrid was successfully launched in the summer of 1984. But the project was backed entirely with private funds and when backing for further development was not forthcoming, the project folded.

Privately funded solid propellant satellite launch vehicle. Basic version with Castor 120 first stage, Castor 120 second stage, Orbus third stage, and OAM Orbital Adjustment Module. Formerly LMLV 2 (Lockheed-Martin Launch Vehicle); LLV 2 (Lockheed Launch Vehicle) .

The importance of the Taepodong 1 is that it is the first of what will be a proliferation of ICBM and satellite launchers that will be in the hands of smaller developing countries in the next century.

The Beal Aerospace BA-2 was a privately-financed heavy-lift commercial launch vehicle that used innovative technical solutions to achieve low cost to orbit. It harkened back to the low-cost Truax Sea Dragon or TRW 'Big Dumb Booster' concepts of the 1960's but added several new twists. The three-stage launcher stood 72 m tall and had the capacity to lift 6.000 kg to geosynchronous transfer orbit and 17,000 kg to low earth orbit. The BA-2 had a constant diameter of 6.2 m and a large payload fairing that could accommodate side-by-side placement of larger satellite payloads. The vehicle employed one pressure-fed centreline engine per stage. Hydrogen peroxide and standard aviation fuel were used as propellants, providing environmental advantages. Tank pressurisation was by inert helium gas. The pressure-fed technique negated the use of costly and complicated turbo pumps. Beal abandoned the project at the end of 2000 after the collapse of the MEO satellite market and active measures by NASA to support other, competing, more high-tech projects by the major aerospace contractors.