The solid-fuel Little Joe II tested the Apollo launch escape system.
Powered by
up to nine rocket motors with a combined thrust of 860,000 pounds (3.8
million
newtons), Little Joe II could boost a spacecraft on a path which duplicated
an
Apollo Saturn inflight emergency. At the inflight "emergency," the
Launch Escape
System, (the rocket attached tothe tower on top of the Little Joe II),
fired and pulled
the spacecraft safely away from the booster. Between August 1963 and
Junuary
1966, five flew from the White Sands Missile Range.
Statistics
Height: 87.9 feet (26.5 m)
Liftoff weight: 139,731 pounds (63,339 kg)
Built by: Convair Division, General Dynamics