The events on this day in history for our heritage companies are noted below.
The earliest event was in 1963, the latest event was in 1995
Human Spaceflight:
NONE
Military and Classified Programs:
NONE
Exploration and Interplanetary Programs:
NONE
Earth-Monitoring and Civil Weather Satellite programs:
NONE
Commercial Programs:
1995 – LAUNCH FAILURE: Gemstar I, LM Athena-1 (LMLV-1), SLC6, VAFB- FAILURE, Thrust vector control system, guidance system
Test, ICBM, FBM programs:
1963 – LAUNCH: MM Titan I, 395-A1, VAFB
Other:
NONE
The photo today is of the launch of Gemstar I on Athena-1 in 1995. The mission failed due to two separate failure mechanisms as noted in the story below:
The short-lived Athena launch vehicle program (I and II) began its 10-vehicle launch manifest with a failure. Expended hydraulic fluid burned in first stage aft section, damaging nozzle feedback cables causing loss of gimbal control and tumbling. Separately, corona arcing in the IMU high-voltage power supply caused loss of attitude reference. The flight was terminated by range safety officer at T+160 s.