Documents / Report
This final report, dated September 10, 1996, was prepared by the Research Triangle Institute for the Department of the Air Force's 45th and 30th Space Wing safety offices. Titled Modeling Unlikely Space-Booster Failures in Risk Calculations, it shows how rare Mode-5 failures, in which a rocket veers well off its intended flight line, are modeled in the DAMP risk-analysis program. An appendix lists Atlas, Delta, Titan and Thor launch and failure histories through August 1996.
From the source:Release of 2026-05-08 Incident: 9/10/96, N/A. This report describes the Modeling of Unlikely Space-Booster Failures in Risk Calculations, documenting historical launch failure modes and recommending corrective actions to address them using novel modelling techniques.
“Lockheed”3 pages
131. LV-3A/ Agena B (Rubber Gun), 17 June 62, Response Mode 4, Flight Phase 3: Although Atlas performance was satisfactory, the mission was apparently a failure. No other data available. 134. 67E (Extra Bonus), 13 July 62, Response Mode 4, Flight Phase 2 and 2.5: A LOX leak in the high-pressure line apparently froze sustainer control components. Residual sustainer thrust after cutoff continued for some 30 seconds, causing a 120-mile overshoot. 137. 145D (Mariner R-1), 22 July 62, Response Mode 5, Flight Phase 2: Booster stage and flight appeared normal until after booster staging at guidance enable at about 157 seconds. Operation of guidance rate beacon was intermittent. Due to this and faulty guidance equations, erroneous guidance commands were given based on invalid rate data. Vehicle deviations became evident at 172 seconds and continued throughout flight with a maximum yaw deviation of 60° and pitch deviation of 28° occurring at 270 seconds. The vehicle deviated grossly from the planned trajectory in azimuth and velocity, and executed abnormal maneuvers in pitch and yaw. The missile was destroyed by the RSO at 293.5 seconds, some 12 seconds after SECO. 141. 87D (Peg Board II), 9 Aug 62, Response Mode 4, Flight Phase 2.5: Failure of the sustainer/vernier hydraulic system to maintain system pressure prevented normal operation during the vernier solo phase. 142. 57F (Crash Truck), 10 Aug 62, Response Mode 5, Flight Phase 1: The roll program failed. The missile was destroyed by the RSO at 68 seconds. 144. 179D (Mariner R-2), 27 Aug 62, Response Mode NA, Flight Phase 2: Flight was successful although roll control was lost during the period from 140 seconds to 190 seconds due to erratic performance of vernier engine #2. Before and after this time interval, vernier #2 and all other Atlas and Agena systems performed normally.· 146. 4D (Briar Street), 2 Oct 62, Response Mode 4, Flight Phase 2: The missile self- destructed at 183 seconds. The vernier engines shut down prematurely at 46 seconds. Subsequently, closure of the vernier bleed valves led to excessively high sustainer performance and premature shutdown at 181.3 seconds. 148. 215 D (Ranger-5), 18 Oct 62, Response Mode NA, Flight Phase 5: Flight was regarded as successful although failure in the ground control system 35 minutes after launch prevented accomplishment of primary lunar impact and study m1ss10n. The guidance .rate beacon failed at 94.6 seconds but backup differentiated tracking data kept the vehicle within normal limits. 153. 13F (Action Time), 14 Nov 62, Response Mode 4, Flight Phase 1: The flight was terminated when sustainer and vernier engines shut down prematurely at 9/10/96 123 RTI
Not linked to a story yet.
Report, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 181 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.