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.
“Mission Control”17 pages
50% reduction of sustainer thrust for remainder of Stage II operation. Impact was 2888 miles short of target. . 63. I (Yellow Jacket), 5 Dec 62, Response Mode 4T, Flight Phase 2: Missile was command destructed at 250 seconds. No other data available. 64. N-11, 6 Dec 62, Response Mode 4, Flight Phase 1: Stage I shut down 11.4 seconds early. As a result, no inertial velocity-dependent discretes were issued and Stage II shut down prematurely, apparently due to an oxidizer bootstrap-line failure. 66. N-15, 10 Jan 63, Response Mode 4, Flight Phase 2: Stage II flight was terminated by backup SECO approximately 34 seconds after ignition because low thrust caused velocity to fall below performance criteria. Cause of low thrust was reduced oxidizer flow through the gas-generator injector. Impact only 556 miles downrange. 68. N-16, 6 Feb 63, Response Mode 4, Flight Phase 2: Oxidizer depletion prior to normal SECO resulted in impact 71 miles short of target. 69. N-7 (Awful Tired), 16 Feb 63, Response Mode 4T, Flight Phase 1: Missile self- destructed at .56 seconds at an altitude of 18,000 feet due to loss of roll control. Failure was caused by improper umbilical release at launch and subsequent loss of vehicle electrical control. 70. N-18, 21 Mar 63, Response Mode 4T, Flight Phase 2.5: Although vernier ignition was normal, vernier #2 received no commands, and gimbaled erratically 2.8 seconds later. R/V attitude was incorrect at separation so that impact was 4 to 5 miles short of target. 74. N-21, 19 Apr 63, Response Mode 4, Flight Phase 2: Stage II engine shut down prematurely due to oxidizer bootstrap-line failure. 76. Titan I (Mares Tail), 1 May 63, Response Mode 2, Flight Phase 1: The missile was erratic from liftoff as one engine either failed at liftoff or shutdown immediately thereafter. The missile rose about 50 feet, then fell uprange from the launch pad about 7.5 seconds after liftoff. 77. N-14, 9 May 63, Response Mode 4, Flight Phase 2: Oxidizer depletion due to a leak resulted in premature Stage II shutdown and impact short of target. 80. N-20, 29 May 63, Response Mode 4, Flight Phase 1: A fuel leak in Stage I engine compartment at ignition caused a fire that spread through the engine compartment. Stage I destroyed itself at 52 seconds. Stage II was destroyed by RSO. 9/10/96 159 RTI
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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.