Eyeballing
the
Allegany Ballistics Laboratory
Rocket Center, WV
19 October 2002. One of the Eyeball
series.
Source of maps and photos: Mapquest and
TerraServer.
M. writes 18 October 2002:
What is the facility located at Pinto, Maryland [Located across the Potomac River in West Virginia]? It looks (from the topo map) like a nuclear weapons storage site, and is designated as a target in FEMA Publication # 196. lived in Maryland for many years and was totally unaware of it's existence until yesterday.
Cryptome: This is probably the Allegany Ballistics Labortory, Rocket Center, WV, a US Navy rocket research and production facility. See:
http://www.fbodaily.com/cbd/archive/2000/04(April)/24-Apr-2000/Aawd001.htmhttp://epa.gov/reg3hwmd/super/WV/allegany-ballistics/
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/book/lv/engines/kick/WIDELYUSEDMOTORS.html
The NOTS team were also involved in the Air Force's Pioneer lunar probe, which had a similar design to their own satellite and included a Thiokol lunar orbit insertion motor in place of the NOTS kick motor. In that same hectic summer of 1958 this first American moon probe attempt met a fiery end over Cape Canaveral. Its Thor Able launch vehicle carried the the first Allegany Ballistics Lab (ABL) X-248 fiberglass-cased solid motor, soon known as Altair. Altair was the first of several solid motors to be used as `universal' final stages serving a variety of launch vehicles. A prototype version of Altair, the X-241, was also used as the third stage of the NOTS vehicle. In 1959 the X-248 was used on Atlas Able and on the final Vanguard launch, while in 1960 it became the final stage for both the new Thor Delta and the all-solid-propellant Scout. Altair was also used as a final stage for the suborbital Javelin and for the Sergeant-based Journeyman and Shotput sounding rockets, and the Martin Bold Orion antisatellite weapon. A scaled up Altair, called Antares, provided another Scout stage. An improved Altair 2 version was introduced in 1963. Altair 2 was used on Scout and Delta, as well as on the unusual OV1 vehicle. Multiple OV1s were strapped to Atlas rockets and fired separately into orbit carrying their payloads.http://www.eren.doe.gov/femp/aboutfemp/annual_reports/pdfs/annrep96_Part6.pdf
Information on its current status and operation is welcome; send to jya@pipeline.com
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 USGS Photo 24 Apr 1989 |
 USGS Topo 1 Jul 1974 |
 USGS Photo 24 Apr 1989 |
 USGS Photo 24 Apr 1989 |