The events on this day in history for our heritage companies are noted below.
The earliest event was in 1956, the latest event was in 1997
One milestone event (5 to 65+ years ago)
Human Spaceflight:
NONE
Military and Classified Programs:
1967 – LAUNCH: RCA DMSP-Block-4A F9, Thor Burner 2, SLC10W, VAFB
1969 – LAUNCH: Classified mission, MM Titan 23B, SCL4W, VAFB – MILESTONE: 55 years ago
Exploration and Interplanetary Programs:
1961 – LAUNCH FAILURE: Ranger 1, GD Atlas/Lockheed Agena B, LC12, CCAFS – Agena misfired
Earth-Monitoring and Civil Weather Satellite programs:
1997 – LAUNCH: Lewis, LM Athena-1, SLC6, VAFB – earth resources satellite and UV astronomy, spacecraft failed shortly after a successful launch
Commercial Programs:
1973 – LAUNCH: Intelsat 4 F7, GD Atlas SLV-3D/Centaur, LC36A, CCAFS
Test, ICBM, FBM programs:
1956 – LAUNCH: Lockheed X-17, LC3, CCAFS
1961 – LAUNCH: GD Atlas D, 576-B3, VAFB
1963 – LAUNCH (2): Lockheed Polaris A2, SSBN617, ETR
1971 – LAUNCH (3): Lockheed Polaris A2, SSBN618, ETR
1985 – LAUNCH: MM Peacekeeper, LF08, VAFB
1986 – LAUNCH: MM Peacekeeper, LF02, VAFB
Other:
NONE
The photo today is the Ranger 1 launch on Atlas/Agena B in 1961. Photo Credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech (found on NASA photo archives).
Hear’s the story of the difficulties leading up to the launch of Ranger 1 and the failure of the Agena B from Wikipedia:
Delays during launch attempts
- Delay of the 1st countdown
- July 26: Trajectory information required by the Range Safety Officer was delayed.
- July 27: A guidance system malfunction in the Atlas booster.
- July 28: Engineers found that the guidance program to be fed into the Cape computer contained an error.
- 1st countdown. July 29.
- 83 minutes before launch: Power interruptions occurred, requiring momentary holds to permit all stations to check and recover.
- 28 minutes before launch: Commercial electrical power failed. Inadequate allowance had been made for changes in cable sag caused by variations in temperature on the new power poles recently installed at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
- 2nd countdown.
- July 30. Engineers discovered a leak in Ranger’s attitude control gas system.
- 3rd countdown.
- July 31. A valve malfunctioned in the liquid-oxygen tank on the Atlas booster.
- 4th countdown.
- August 1. Ground controllers turned on a spacecraft command applying high voltage to the scientific experiments for calibration purposes. Immediately all stations reported a major spacecraft failure. An electrical malfunction had triggered multiple commands from the central clock timer, and Ranger 1 “turned on” as it had been programmed to do in orbit. The explosive squibs fired, solar panels extended inside the shroud, and all the experiments commenced to operate. Project engineers disengaged Ranger 1 from the Agena and hastily returned it to Hangar AE. Meantime, the launch was rescheduled for August 22, the next available opportunity. Subsequent tests and investigations determined the activating mechanism to have been a voltage discharge to the spacecraft frame; although engineers suspected one or two of the scientific instruments, they could not determine the precise source of the discharge with certainty. In the days that followed, they replaced and requalified the damaged parts and modified the circuitry to prevent a recurrence of this kind of failure.
Launch
During the first half of 1961, Lockheed introduced the new Agena B stage which replaced the early test-model Agena A of 1959-60. Agena B was more powerful and had in-orbit restart capability. Its first flight with the launch of Midas 3 on July 24 was successful. Several frustrating delays in Ranger 1’s launch occurred, including one episode where the spacecraft’s timer inadvertently activated on the pad, causing the solar panels to be deployed inside the payload shroud. After removing Ranger 1 and repairing it, the launch was carried out at 6:04 AM EST on August 23. All went well up to orbital injection, but the planned Agena restart went awry when the engine shut down after only a few seconds, putting the probe in a 312×105 mile track. Subsequent investigation concluded that an electrical circuit in the Agena had overheated from exposure to the Sun.
The unintended orbit made it difficult to operate Ranger 1’s systems correctly, although ground controllers tried to work around it. The main problem they faced was with the solar panels; Ranger 1 would experience 90 minutes of darkness while passing around the nighttime side of the Earth. In addition, the antennas at NASA’s various tracking stations had difficulty locking onto the probe due to its orbital plane. During this time, the computer system repeatedly fired the attitude control jets in a vain attempt to lock onto the Sun with the effect that only one day after launch, the probe ran out of attitude control gas. At this point, it could not be stabilized and the solar panels lost their lock on the Sun. Ranger 1 thus reverted to battery power and continued transmitting until the batteries ran down on August 27 and all signals from the probe ceased. It was not a total loss; the spacecraft systems had worked well and some data on cosmic rays and radiation was returned, however the low orbit precluded the use of the magnetometer. After four days and 111 orbits, Ranger 1 reentered and burned up over the Gulf of Mexico.
