Curiosity question. Does anyone know how the abort rockets on the Mercury through Apollo rockets were dealt with after the critical point was past? It seems like a lot of wasted payload to haul into orbit.
They weren’t wasted payloads except in retrospect. They were a safety feature. The Apollo escape rockets were blown away after first staging. Not sure Mercury had ‘em, pretty sure the first two Mercury launches didn’t have ‘em.
http://www.astronautix.com/craft/csmles.htm
1962 April 6
• Thiokol selected for Apollo launch escape tower jettison motors
The Thiokol Chemical Corporation was selected by NAA to build the solid-fuel rocket motor to be used to jettison the Apollo launch escape tower following a launch abort or during a normal mission.