05-04-2019, 03:47 PM
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Master Modeler
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Fairbanks, Alaska
Posts: 6,507
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tbzep
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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I've read that too--Richard Lewis' 1968 book "Appointment on the Moon" said that that Atlas-Centaur, vehicle F-1 (which had stood on its pad for over a year, as the problems mounted), was intended to fly a suborbital mission, not running the Centaur engines long enough to achieve orbit. He wrote that the "plastic weather shield" (one of the foam plastic panels) broke and in the process, punctured the Centaur hydrogen tank, after which leaking hydrogen was ignited by the Atlas engines, causing the explosion. I've also seen a color film (it's on YouTube somewhere) of the F-1 explosion, in which a stream of "steaming" liquid hydrogen is clearly visible, running down the side of the vehicle just before the explosion; it also shows the Atlas sustainer engine and rear thrust cone falling in a flat spin afterward.
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