Atlas-Able Lunar Launch Vehicle

Atlas-Able was a NASA lunar-launch configuration that combined an Atlas D first-stage system with Able and solid upper stages derived from the Vanguard and Thor-Able programs. Three attempts from 1959 to 1960 carried increasingly refined Pioneer lunar orbiters, but fairing failure, upper-stage propulsion failure, and premature upper-stage ignition prevented all three missions from reaching space or the Moon.