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
81. Titan II (Thread Needle), 20 June 63, Response Mode 5, Flight Phase 2: Flight appeared normal until BECO at about 146 seconds. The staging event seemed abnormally long, due to· low second-stage thrust that remained considerably below normal thereafter because of reduced oxidizer flow through the gas- generator injector. The vehicle nevertheless followed closely to the intended ground track, albeit well behind schedule. At about 480 seconds (and some three minutes behind schedule), the missile began a slow turn to the left. A SECO indication was noted about 10 seconds later. Destruct was sent at 532 seconds after all track was lost. 82. Titan I (Silver Spur), 16 July 63, Response Mode 4, Flight Phase 2: The flight was normal through first-stage cutoff. Separation occurred but the second~stage failed· to ignite. 85. Titan I (Polar Route), 30 Aug 63, Response Mode 4, Flight Phase 2.5: The flight appeared normal through the first and second-stage thrusting periods. At SECO the vernier engines also shut down, apparently due to shutdown of the gas generator. 89. II (Fire Truck), 9 Nov 63, Response Mode 4T, Flight Phase 1: Missile tumbled out of control at 130 seconds, then broke up. 104. IHA (65-210), 1 Sep 64, Response Mode 4, Flight Phase 4: Nominal mission through first transtage burn. Transtage propellant-tank pressurization system • failed with resultant reduction in thrust. Vehicle impacted about 2700 miles downrange. 107. Titan I (West Wind I), 8 Dec 64, Response Mode 5, Flight Phase 1: A first-stage power-level malfunction combined with guidance deviations caused the missile to drift far to the left, then over-correct far to the right, passing north of Midway Is. No other data available. 109. Titan I (West Wind III), 14 Jan 65, Response Mode 4, Flight Phase 2: First-stage flight was apparently normal, but second stage failed to ignite. 112. Titan I (West Wind II), 5 Mar 65, Response Mode 4, Flight Phase 2: Missile impacted on azimuth about 80 miles short of target due to propellant depletion. 116. Titan I (Card Deck), 30 Apr 65, Response Mode 4, Flight Phase 1: Flight appeared normal until around 100 seconds when the IP slowed and then stopped due to a turbopump failure. The missile self-destructed at about 115 seconds with the impact point about 115 miles offshore. 120. Titan II (Gold Fish), 14 Jun 65, Response Mode 4, Flight Phase 2.5: Vehicle apparently failed during the vernier solo phase due to·loss of a vernier nozzle. 9/10/96 160 RT!
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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.