The Complete Book of Spaceflight: From Apollo 1 to Zero Gravity

288 Musudan
together. Two of the components served as boosters for
the third stage, which was orbital. These boosters could
then be flown back either by pilots or by remote control.
Fuel could be pumped from the boosters into the orbiter,
so the orbiter could reach orbit with a full fuel load and
therefore, if required, continue on to the Moon.
Musudan
Launch site at 40.5° N, 129.5° E, from which North
Korea attempted to launch its first satellite, Kwangmyongsong
1, in 1998.
MX-324
An experimental American rocket-powered aircraft of
World War II built by Northrop Corporation with an
Aerojet engine. The MX-324 had a length of 4.3 m, a
wingspan of 11.6 m, a top speed of 885 km/hr, and a
maximum range of 1,600 km. Its maiden flight was on
July 5, 1944, at Harper Dry Lake, California. The test
pilot, Harry Crosby, lay prone in order to withstand the
high acceleration. Only three of the planes were ever
built: two were severely damaged during testing, and a
third was dismantled.
Myojo
A NASDA (National Space Development Agency, of
Japan) payload attached to the H-2 launch vehicle to
monitor the rocket’s performance, confirm the accuracy
of the H-2 orbit injection, and collect data on the environment
of the payload equipment; “Myojo” means
“Venus.” It was also known as the Vehicle Evaluation Payload
(VEP).
Launch
Date: February 3, 1994
Vehicle: H-2
Site: Tanegashima
Orbit: 449 × 36,261 km × 28.6°
Total mass: 2,391 kg