The events on this day in history for our heritage companies are noted below.
The earliest event was in 1957, the latest event was in 2015
One milestone event (5 to 65+ years ago)
Human Spaceflight:
1988 – LANDING: STS-27 (Atlantis) landed, Edwards AFB
2015 – LAUNCH: Cygnus S.S. Deke Slayton II (Orb-4), ULA Atlas V 401, LC41, CCAFS
Military and Classified Programs:
2000 – LAUNCH: USA-155, LM Atlas IIAS, LC36A, CCAFS
2009 – LAUNCH: WGS-3, ULA Delta 4M+(5,4), LC37B, CCAFS – MILESTONE: 15 years ago
2013 – LAUNCH: USA-247, Cubesats, ULA Atlas V 501, SLC3E, VAFB
Exploration and Interplanetary Programs:
NONE
Earth-Monitoring and Civil Weather Satellite programs:
NONE
Commercial Programs:
1980 – LAUNCH: Intelsat 5 F2, GD Atlas SLV-3D/Centaur, LC36B, CCAFS
Test, ICBM, FBM programs:
1957 – LAUNCH FAILURE: Vanguard 1A, Martin Vanguard TV-3, LC-18A, CCAFS – launch vehicle briefly left pad, came back down and exploded – attributed to low fuel pressure
1962 – LAUNCH FAILURE: Lockheed Polaris A3, LC29A, CCAFS
1962 – LAUNCH FAILURE: MM Titan II, LC16, CCAFS
1967 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Polaris A3, EAG-154, Johnston Island, Pacific
1971 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Poseidon C3, SSBN634, ETR
Other:
NONE
The photos today are from two missions. First, there is a photo of the Cygnus S.S. Deke Slayton II launch by Atlas V 401 in 2015. This ISS supply mission with Cygnus was launched on Atlas after an Antares catastrophic failure with the Orb-3 mission. This photo was found on Wikipedia with the following caption and credit:
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station for the Orbital ATK CRS-4 commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station. Liftoff was at 4:44 p.m. EST. The Cygnus resupply spacecraft will deliver more than 7,700 pounds of essential crew supplies, equipment and scientific experiments to the station. Photo Credit: NASA/Tony Gray and Tim Terry.
Second, there is a photo of the infamous failure of Vanguard TV-3 (with the Vanguard 1A satellite) in 1957. Photo Credit: US Navy, released to the public domain. Here’s a story about this failure from Wikipedia:
The exact cause of the accident was not determined with certainty due to limited telemetry instrumentation at this early phase,but Martin Marietta [more correctly, the Martin Company] concluded that low fuel tank pressure during the start procedure allowed some of the burning fuel in the combustion chamber to leak into the fuel system through the injector head before full propellant pressure was obtained from the turbopump. General Electric, on the other hand, argued that the problem was a loose fuel connection. In hindsight, the first problem appeared to cause the second. The investigation concluded that tank and fuel system pressure were slightly lower than nominal, which resulted in insufficient pressure in the injector head. As a result, hot combustion gas backed up into the injector head and caused a large pressure spike. The injector rings completely burned through, followed by the rupture of the combustion chamber. At T+1 second, a shock wave in the thrust section of the booster ruptured a fuel feed line, completely terminating engine thrust. GE technicians had failed to catch this design flaw during testing and a temporary fix was made by increasing tank pressure. Eventually, a further modification was made by using ethane gas to increase fuel force and prevent rough start transients. The X-405 engine did not fail again on subsequent launches and static firing tests.
After the launch failure, trading in the stock of the Martin Company, the prime contractor for the project, was temporarily suspended by the New York Stock Exchange.
Newspapers in the United States published prominent headlines and articles describing the failure with plays on the name of the Russian satellite, Sputnik, such as “Flopnik”, “Kaputnik”, “Oopsnik”, “Dudnick” and “Stayputnik”. The failure, reported in international media, was a humiliating loss of prestige for the United States, which had presented itself to the world as the leader in science and technology. The Soviet Union, the United States’ rival in the Cold War, exploited the disaster. A few days after the incident, a Soviet delegate to the United Nations inquired whether the United States was interested in receiving aid earmarked for “undeveloped countries”.
The TV-3 disaster was quoted by the New York Times as a “Blow to US Prestige”. Senator Lyndon B. Johnson had said that the launch was “most humiliating” for the American people. In the words of Donald J. Markarian, the project engineer of the Martin Company, the company in charge of the development and creation of TV-3, “Following the TV-3 explosion, Project Vanguard became the whipping boy for the hurt pride of the American people.”
