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| A Trailblazer Iγ reentry-physics research launch cover from "Goldcraft", postmarked at Wallops Island with a hand cancel on December 1, 1959. |
Trailblazer Iγ (I-gamma) was the third flight of NASA’s six-stage Trailblazer I reentry-physics research vehicle, designed to study the effects produced by objects traveling at hypersonic reentry speeds. The first three solid-fuel stages boosted a small velocity package to approximately 200 miles altitude, after which three additional stages accelerated the reentry body downward to velocities approaching 20,000 feet per second. The December 1 flight used a heavy-wall titanium reentry body and a toroidal telemetry transmitter, but a third-stage instability prevented the remaining stages from igniting and the planned high-speed reentry experiment was not completed. The launch was nevertheless significant because it was the first Trailblazer flight observed by the new S-band tracking radar installed at nearby Arbuckle Neck by MIT Lincoln Laboratory.
