Quote from: Art LeBrun on 02/28/2013 02:25 amV-4 is the lost Titan 1 off the elevator but it got momentarily airborne.Almost. The elevator accident was Missile V-2 (December 1960).The Astronautix page for the Titan I mentions only one other Titan I failure out of VAFB, which was V-4 in May 63 so that's why I suspected this was the launch I saw.V-2 simply dropped back into the silo. This one falls over and impacts the ground (looks just like Atlas 45F). The cameras also show a closeup shot of the engines as this is happening.Quote64E suffered a B-2 shutdown apparently due to lube oil loss to the turbopump. That is an immediate slew and loss of mission.Atlas failure sheet you'd posted before said it was a pressurization malfunction, but there's a couple mistakes in there so IDK.
V-4 is the lost Titan 1 off the elevator but it got momentarily airborne.
64E suffered a B-2 shutdown apparently due to lube oil loss to the turbopump. That is an immediate slew and loss of mission.
On V-2 elevator hydraulics failed. The missile crib was blown out of the silo. Titan did not like to be upstaged by Atlas. V-4 as I recall lifted slightly but I need to see the poor quality video again.
Check out that nose cone. This was 115F (October 1966) launching an ABRES reentry vehicle.
Quote from: Davd on 02/28/2013 11:01 amCheck out that nose cone. This was 115F (October 1966) launching an ABRES reentry vehicle. That was the BGV I believe
Check out that nose cone. This was 115F (October 1966) launching an ABRES reentry vehicle. The booster disappeared behind cloud cover shortly after liftoff, and just as separation of the ABRES RV was to take place, a flash of light appeared in the sky followed by cessation of all telemetry.Investigation revealed that the cork coating put on the RV to reduce ambient heating levels caused static electricity buildup which at the moment of staging produced a jolt of current that inadvertently tripped the Atlas's RSO destruct package.This problem was corrected on future flights by rigging a length of copper wire between the RV and the Atlas adapter, thus keeping both at the same electrostatic level until separation.
Attached is a summary page of Atlas 115F flight which indicates a different cause of failure for the mission. The account above appears in William Yengst's book "Lightning Bolts". It might be the separation event belongs to Atlas 119F - the second flight in the Boost Glide Re-entry Vehicle program 1966-1967 as Yengst recounts an undefined failure at separation.
Quote from: Art LeBrun on 03/02/2013 08:18 pmAttached is a summary page of Atlas 115F flight which indicates a different cause of failure for the mission. The account above appears in William Yengst's book "Lightning Bolts". It might be the separation event belongs to Atlas 119F - the second flight in the Boost Glide Re-entry Vehicle program 1966-1967 as Yengst recounts an undefined failure at separation.I haven't found any other launch reports as of late, although I did find a doc describing the damage done to SLC-3W by Samos 3. It states that the wiring and plumbing on the pad were completely destroyed, the launcher arms "badly damaged and probably in need of replacement" and the umbilical tower "still standing, but structural integrity in doubt".If you've seen the video of that, it was one hell of a blast. One thing I noticed is how the Agena starts to break up before the fireball actually reaches it (would guess the RSO charges automatically activated)
Great damage recovery as SAMOS 4 was launched just 73 days later from the same pad.
Returning to my earlier remark that the Agena on Samos 3 blew almost as soon as the Atlas impacted the pad, compare for example Vanguard where the upper stages and satellite were battered, but largely intact. One can assume there was no RSO destruct charge on those.
they likely didn't go off because the accident was too quick