PGM-17 Thor in the context of "W49"

Project Emily was the deployment of American-built Thor intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs) in the United Kingdom between 1959 and 1963. Royal Air Force (RAF) Bomber Command operated 60 Thor missiles, dispersed to 20 RAF air stations, as part of the British nuclear deterrent.

Due to concerns over the buildup of Soviet missiles, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower met Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in Bermuda in March 1957 to explore the possibility of short-term deployment of IRBMs in the United Kingdom until the long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) were deployed. The October 1957 Sputnik crisis caused this plan to be expedited. The first Thor missile arrived in the UK on a Douglas C-124 Globemaster II transport aircraft in August 1958, and was delivered to the RAF in September.

Thor was a US space launch vehicle derived from the PGM-17 Thor intermediate-range ballistic missile. The Thor rocket was the first member of the Delta rocket family of space launch vehicles. The last launch of a direct derivative of the Thor missile occurred in 2018 as the first stage of the final Delta II.

Launch Complex 18 (LC-18) is a launch complex at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida that was active during the late 1950s and early 1960s. It was used by Viking, Vanguard, Thor and Scout rockets. The complex consists of two launch pads, LC-18A, which was originally built by the United States Navy for the Vanguard rocket, and LC-18B, which was originally by the United States Air Force used for tests of the PGM-17 Thor missile.

The Rocketdyne S-3D (Air Force designation LR79) was an American liquid rocket engine produced by Rocketdyne (a division of North American Aviation) between 1956 and 1961. It was a gas generator, pump-fed engine, using a liquid oxygen (LOX) and RP-1 (kerosene) propellant combination, capable of producing 134,908 pounds of thrust (600.1 kN) at sea level.

The S-3 was based on the Redstone engine, and is part of the LR79 family, used on the PGM-19 Jupiter and PGM-17 Thor missiles, and on the Juno II rocket. Other members of the LR79 engine family include: XLR71-NA-1, B-2C, XLR83-NA-1, LR79-7, S-3D, XLR89-1, MB-3-1, X-1, LR83-NA-1, H-1, LR89-5, XLR89-5, S-3, LR89-7, MB-3-J, MB-3, MB-3-3, RZ.2, H-1c, H-1b, RS-27, RS-27A R, RS-56-OBA and RS-27C.