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The Question
(Submitted September 25, 1996)
I am trying to find information on the propellants used in the Thor-Delta
Rocket for some educational material I am preparing. I would like to be
able to use the stoichiometry, mechanism, and kinetics of the propellant
reactions in teaching my chemistry classes.
I would be interested in similar information for the Space Shuttle and
Apollo rockets as well. All I could find at the NASA KSC web site was the
composition of the shuttle systems.
The Answer
Unfortunately, none of us are 'rocket scientists' as such --- our group
works on instrumentation on, and data from, astronomical satellites, and
not directly with the launch vehicles. Still, we used one of the search
engines on the Web and found the following site:
http://www.fas.org/spp/military/program/launch/delta.htm
According to this, the Delta II first stage uses refined kerosene and liquid
oxygen, and the second stage uses Aerozine 50 and nitrogen tetroxide.
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