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 1998.
No milestone events (5 to 65+ years ago)
Human Spaceflight:
NONE
Military and Classified Programs:
1963 – LAUNCH: Classified mission, GD Atlas/Lockheed Agena B, SLC3E, VAFB
1967 – LAUNCH FAILURE: Lockheed Corona 117, Thor SLV-2G/Lockheed Agena D, SLC1E, VAFB – Stage I
1998 – LAUNCH: USA-139, LM Titan IVB(401)/Centaur, LC40, CCAFS
Exploration and Interplanetary Programs:
1971 – LAUNCH FAILURE: Mariner H (8) GD Atlas SLV-3C/Centaur, LC36B, CCAFS – early Centaur shutdown. Martin Marietta built the propulsion subsystem on this Mariner spacecraft.
Earth-Monitoring and Civil Weather Satellite programs:
NONE
Commercial Programs:
NONE
Test, ICBM, FBM programs:
1963 – LAUNCH FAILURE: MM Titan II, LC16, CCAFS
1973 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Poseidon C3, SSBN655, ETR
Other:
NONE
The photo today is of the launch of Mariner H (8) on Atlas SLV-3C/Centaur in 1971. Martin Marietta built the spacecraft propulsion system for JPL.
Photo Credit: NASA/Public Domain.
Here’s a story from Wikipedia on the failure:
The main Centaur engine was ignited 265 seconds after launch, but the upper stage began to oscillate in pitch and tumbled out of control. The Centaur stage shut down 365 seconds after launch due to starvation caused by the tumbling. The Centaur and spacecraft payload separated and re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere approximately 1,500 kilometres (930 mi) downrange and fell into the Atlantic Ocean about 560 kilometres (350 mi) north of Puerto Rico.
A guidance system failure was suspected as the culprit, but JPL navigation chief Bill O’Neil dismissed the idea that the entire guidance system had failed. He argued that an autopilot malfunction had occurred since the event had occurred at the exact moment when the system was supposed to activate. Investigation proceeded quickly and the problem was soon discovered to be the result of a malfunction in the pitch rate gyro amplifier. A diode intended to protect the system from transient voltages was thought to have been damaged during repairs/installation of the pitch amplifier’s printed circuit board, something that would not have been detected through bench tests.
As of 2025, Mariner 8 is the most recent US planetary probe to be lost in a launch vehicle malfunction.
