Country of Origin: United States of America
Dimensions:
Other: 1 1/4 in. long x 1/8 in. wide (3.2 x 0.3cm)
Materials:
Each motor, glass fiber phenolic; nozzles, quartz-phenolic.
This is a strip of WSR-2 rocket motors, claimed as the world's smallest rocket motors. The motor, developed from 1962 by the Curtiss-Wright Corporation in conjunction with the Air Force, was designed to make extremely fine steering adjustments on satellites like Tiros. Primarily, the WSR-2 was to help the satellite maintain its spinning rate.
When used on Tiros, 100 caps could be fired in each burst and each unit could produce a burst of one pound of thrust for less than two-hundreths of a second. A special cap pistol device was used to fire the motors by electrical impulses. This object was found in the collections of the Smithsonian.
