[X] My Assistant

[lyford]

If you're gonna go bad, you might as well make it good!

What are your "favorite" launch failures?

(pic snagged from Rocket Explosions)

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[dvandorn]

Actually, Bruce, the way I always heard the story, MR-1 was reflown as MR-1A some weeks later, using the same capsule *and* the same Redstone booster. The Redstone problem was not with the missile itself, but with the GSE power plug that attached to the base of the missile. A technician had filed off a small bit of one of the two prongs on the power plug, to make it fit better, but that resulted in the plug's prongs disconnecting a few milliseconds apart. It happened at the exact time a mechanical sequencer was sampling the voltages on both sides of the power line, and resulted in the Redstone shutdown. But nothing was wrong with the missile, the fins weren't even bent by it settling back down onto them.

However, the Redstone was *almost* rendered unusable that day. Once the 'chutes had been deployed (and, make no mistake, it was the drogue, the main and the reserve main 'chutes, all deployed at once), there was a great concern that winds could fill the 'chutes and pull the Redstone over, ruining both the missile and the capsule. And none of von Braun's men wanted to go out to the rocket and safe it, because it was still fully fueled -- and the Germans had seen what happens when a fully-fueled rocket tips over.

One of von Braun's men started saying something about having a rifle out in his car. The Americans wanted to know what the hell he was going to do with a rifle, so von Braun explained that, back in the V-2 development days, they had a bird on the pad that was dead but fully fueled, so they took a rifle and punctured the tanks from a safe distance, allowing the tanks to depressurize and vent and making the rocket safe to approach.

Von Braun's deputy (I know the name, I just can't remember it right now) had to be actively dissuaded from getting his rifle and forceably depressurizing the tanks. Fortunately, winds stayed light and they were able to get the missile safed (and the chutes gathered up) before anything really bad happened.

BTW -- that whole episode was later dubbed "The Day They Launched the Escape Tower." Funny thing is, the escape tower jett motor was loud and flashy, and the tower took off REALLY fast -- such that the politicians who had been invited to watch were very impressed at just how fast these rockets flew away! They had to be told that the rocket was still on the pad...

-the other Doug