During the first year of the existence of Goddard's Sounding Rocket Branch, several sounding rockets, whose development predated NASA, came into the "stable" of vehicles readily available to NASA. Chief among these were the Javelin and Journeyman, both in the so-called Argo series. The Argo series was developed by the Aerolab Development Co. under the sponsorship of NACA/NASA, with support from the Air Force Special Weapons Center, the Naval Bureau of Ordnance, and the Allegany Ballistics Laboratory.
The Argo vehicles were derived from a family of NACA/NASA hypersonic test vehicles, after the fashion
of the Nike-Deacon and Nike-Cajun. Aerolab has designed a long series of Argo rockets, including the
Argo E-20, designed to lift 4.5 kg (10 lb) to 24 384 m (80 000 ft); but only the Jason (Argo E-5),
the Javelin (Argo D-4), and the Journeyman (Argo D-8) have seen significant use. NASA never employed
the Jason, but it is the rocket that the Air Force employed to measure high-altitude nuclear
radiation during the Argus experiments in the late summer of 1958, when nuclear weapons were
exploded at high altitudes. NASA has used the Javelin to some extent. The Journeyman helped NASA
gather radiation data prior to the Mercury flights and has also seen some Air Force use. In
general, the Argos are rather large by sounding rocket standards. They were all put together
from off-the-shelf military hardware, often following vehicle adaptations by Langley Research
Center. NASA use of the Argo series has been minimal.
(Source: www.astronautix.com/lvs/joueyman.htm)
(NASA photo courtesy of Andrey Lysenko)
Statistics
Manufacturer: Aerolab
Number of Launches: 8
Success Rate: 100%
First Firing: 19 September, 1960
Last Firing: 30 June, 1965
Total Mass: 6,300 kg (13,800 lb)
Core Diameter: 0.79m (2.59 ft)
Length: 18.90 m (62 ft)
Apogee: 3,000 km (1,800 mi)
Typical Payload: 57 kg (125 lb)
First Stage: ABL M6 solid-fueled rocket; 365 kN (82055 lbf) for 5 s
Second and Third Stage: ABL M5 solid-fueled rocket; 217 kN (48700 lb) for 3.4 s
Fourth Stage: ABL X-248 Altair solid-fueled rocket; 14 kN (3150 lb) for 40 s
Launch sites: Vandenberg and Wallops Island