"Short" Atlas-Centaur (video)
Hello All,
I just came across *this* www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpId8SquVOY video of the launch of the very first Atlas-Centaur, which also shows it on the launch pad (LC-36A, I think). This test vehicle, which was painted with a roll pattern, was quite short, apparently having only the conical (without the rear cylinder section) top portion of the payload fairing (much like [if not the same ones] the payload fairing used on the Titan IIIAs and the early Titan IIICs). |
Nothing quite like an early-NASA high-quality MALfunction.
As long as nobody gets hurt, I LIKE EXPLOSIONS. (Same for catos and Powr-Prangs) |
It looked like something let go in the Centaur. I'll have to read up on it and see.
Edit (from Wiki): "The failure was determined to be caused by an insulation panel that ripped off the Centaur during ascent, resulting in a surge in tank pressure when the LH2 overheated." |
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Here (see: www.youtube.com/watch?v=00abi75edBI [this one gives a reason]) and here (see: http://www.youtube.com/results?sear...entaur+explodes ) are ^color^ films of the Atlas-Centaur F-1 vehicle's short flight. Films of the spectacular on-pad failure--at the same pad F-1 flew from--of Atlas-Centaur AC-5 in 1965 (this video contains several excellent views, with sound: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YViFMC-ejKQ ), which fell back after rising just a few feet when one booster engine shut down, are also in the above-linked listing. Also:
AC-5 was carrying a Surveyor model, which was intended to be boosted into a lunar trajectory (likely to a hypothetical Moon in the real Moon's orbit, as was done with other Atlas-Centaur test vehicles). The vehicle could--and later did--send Surveyor landers to the Moon via direct-ascent trajectories, but it took a lot of work to perfect the Centaur's parking orbit restart capability, which offers--even today, with the Atlas V--much greater mission planning flexibility for lunar, interplanetary, and planetary missions. Without the restart capability, there were several months of the year in which the Atlas-Centaur (the early ones, at least) had no viable lunar launch windows; ^with^ the parking orbit and Centaur restart capability, there was at least one lunar launch window each month. |
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While this flight was shorter than some later flights, there's also an aspect ratio issue with the video. Here's an undistorted image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sdasm...57627981313215/ |
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Here's the same footage in color, starting at about 1:08... Accompanied by some neat music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OacVy8_nJi0 Mesmerizing to watch... Later! OL J R :) |
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