Antonov An-225 Mriya with Buran at Paris Air Show, 5 June 1989. (Ralf Manteufel)
5 June 1989: The Antonov An-225 Мрия (Mriya—Dream in the Ukranian language) took off from Kiev with the space shuttle Buran, enroute to the Paris Air Show. The total weight at takeoff was a 1,234,600 pounds (560,005 kilograms)—the greatest weight ever lifted by an aircraft.
The An-225 was derived from the earlier four-engine An-124. It is operated by a flight crew of 6–7. The airplane is 84.00 meters (275.59 feet) long, with a wingspan of 88.40 meters (290.03 feet) and height of 18.10 meters (59.38 feet). The total wing area is 905.0 square meters (9,741.3 square feet).
Mriya weighs approximately 250,000 kilograms (551,156 pounds), empty, and its maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) is 600,000 kilograms (1,322,774 pounds). The maximum payload is 250,000 kilograms (551,156 pounds pounds).
The cargo hold of the An-225 is 43.35 meters (142.22 feet) long, 6.40 meters (21.00 feet) wide and 4.40 meters (14.44 feet) high. The usable volume is 1,300 cubic meters (45,909 cubic feet).
The Antonov An-225 climbing out. (Flightradar24)
The An-225 is powered by six Ivchenko Progress (Lotarev) D-18T turbofan engines producing 229.848 kilonewtons (51,672 pounds of thrust), each. The D-18T is a three-spool axial-flow high-bypass turbofan engine. The 15-stage compressor has a single-stage fan, 7 intermediate-pressure-, and 7 high-pressure stages). The 6-stage turbine consists of 1 high- and 1 intermediate-pressure stages, and 4-stage fan turbine. The engines are 5.400 meters (17.717 feet) long, 2.937 meters (9.636 feet) high and 2.792 meters (9.160 feet) wide. they weigh 4,100 kilograms (9,039 pounds), each.
The transport has cruise speed of 700 kilometers per hour (435 miles per hour) and its maximum speed is 850 kilometers per hour (528 miles per hour). The service ceiling is 11,145 meters (36,565 feet). Mriya carries a maximum fuel load of 300,000 kilograms (661,387 pounds, or 98,567 U.S. gallons, Jet A-1), and has a practical range of 4,500 kilometers (2,796 miles). Its maximum range of 15,400 kilometers (9,569 miles).
four view illustration
The world’s heaviest airplane, Mriya was the only one in existence. It was built specifically to transport Buran. A second An-225 was partially constructed, but never finished.
The An 225 was destroyed during the Battle of Antonov Airport, 24–25 February 2022.
Wreckage of the Antonov An 225 Mriya. (Oleksandr Ratushniak)
Buran, the Soviet space shuttle, made one unmanned flight into orbit, 15 November 1988. It was destroyed 12 May 2002 when its hangar collapsed, killing eight Workers.
4 June 1996: The first Ariane 5 heavy launch vehicle, L501, was launched from the Ensemble de Lancement Ariane 3 (Ariane Launch Area 3) at the Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG), northwest of Kourou, French Guiana, at 12:33:59 UTC, (9:33:59 a.m., local time).
Everything proceeded normally until T + 00:00:36.7. At that time, the backup Inertial Reference System computer failed. 0.05 seconds later, the primary IRS computer also failed.
Having lost its spatial reference, the guidance system began swiveling the engines to correct a perceived attitude change, which, in fact, had not occurred. This caused the rocket to veer off course.
Once the Ariane 5’s angle of attack reached 20°, at T plus 39 seconds, aerodynamic forces caused a structural failure. The two solid rocket boosters broke away. As the rocket began to break apart, the automatic destruct system was activated. L501 exploded at approximately 4,000 meters (13,123 feet), about 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) from the launch pad. Debris fell, covering an area of approximately 5 × 2.5 kilometers (12.5 square kilometers/4.8 square miles).
Explosion of Ariane 5 L501, 4 June 1996 (ESA)
2.1 CHAIN OF TECHNICAL EVENTS
. . . The internal SRI software exception was caused during execution of a data conversion from 64-bit floating point to 16-bit signed integer value. The floating point number which was converted had a value greater than what could be represented by a 16-bit signed integer. This resulted in an Operand Error. The data conversion instructions (in Ada code) were not protected from causing an Operand Error, although other conversions of comparable variables in the same place in the code were protected. . .
3.2 CAUSE OF THE FAILURE
The failure of the Ariane 501 was caused by the complete loss of guidance and attitude information 37 seconds after start of the main engine ignition sequence (30 seconds after lift- off). This loss of information was due to specification and design errors in the software of the inertial reference system.
The extensive reviews and tests carried out during the Ariane 5 Development Programme did not include adequate analysis and testing of the inertial reference system or of the complete flight control system, which could have detected the potential failure.
—ARIANE 5, Flight 501 Failure, Report of the Inquiry Board, Paris 19 July 1996
When designing the Ariane 5, the same software used in the the Ariane 4 guidance system was used. But the Ariane 5 accelerates in a way that causes horizontal velocity to increase at a rate 5 times that of the Ariane 4. This excessive value could not be processed and the computers shut down.
Gemini IX-A launch from LC-19, 13:39:30 UTC, 3 June 1966. (NASA)
3 June 1966: NASA Astronauts Thomas P. Stafford and Eugene A. Cernan launched from Launch Complex 19, Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 13:39:33 UTC, aboard Gemini IX-A. The Gemini was a two-man space capsule built by McDonnell Aircraft Corporation of St. Louis. The launch vehicle was a Titan II GLV rocket. Stafford and Cernan were the original Gemini IX back up crew, but the primary crew, Charles Bassett and Elliott See, were killed in an aircraft accident three months earlier.
Thomas P. Stafford and Eugene A. Cernan. (NASA)
The three-day mission was to rendezvous and dock with an Agena Target Docking Adapter in low Earth orbit, and for Gene Cernan to perform several space walks and to test a back pack maneuvering unit.
Gemini IX-A successfully rendezvoused with the ATDA at 17:45 UTC, 3 June. However, the protective shroud had not separated from the Agena and docking with it was not possible.
Gemini 4 lifts of at Launch Complex 19, 15:15:59 UTC, 3 June 1965. (NASA S65-20742)
3 June 1965, 15:15:59.562 UTC: Gemini 4/Titan II GLV ¹ lifted off from Launch Complex 19 at the Cape Kennedy Air Force Station, Cape Kennedy, Florida. On board were Major James Alton McDivitt, United States Air Force, command pilot; and Major Edward Higgins White II, U.S.A.F., pilot.
The mission was planned to include an orbital rendezvous with the Titan II booster, and an Extravehicular Activity (“EVA”). For a number of reasons, the rendezvous attempt was not successful.
Astronauts James A. McDivitt (left) and Edward H. White II are shown looking over training plans at Cape Kennedy during pre-launch preparations. Photographed in May 1965. (NASA S65-29655)
Unusually, the flight crew were not allowed to name their spacecraft, and there was no mission patch worn on their pressure suits.
The Gemini IV spacecraft separated from the Titan II GLV launch vehicle 6 minutes, 5.6 seconds after liftoff at an altitude of 532,349 feet (162,260 meters) traveling 25,743 feet (7,846.5 meters) per second. It entered a 152.2 × 87.6 nautical mile (281.9 × 162.2 kilometers) orbit with a period of 1 hour, 28 minutes, 54 seconds.
Gemini 4 returned to Earth on 7 June, “splashing down” in the North Atlantic Ocean at 17:12:11 UTC. The mission duration was 4 days, 1 hour, 56 minutes, 12 seconds. The recovery ship was the United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Wasp (CVS-18).
The Gemini 4 spacecraft is on display at the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum.
Cutaway illustration of the Gemini Spacecraft. (NASA)
The two-man Gemini spacecraft was built by the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation of St. Louis, the same company that built the earlier Mercury space capsule. The spacecraft consisted of a reentry module and an adapter section. It had an overall length of 19 feet (5.791 meters) and a diameter of 10 feet (3.048 meters) at the base of the adapter section. The reentry module was 11 feet (3.353 meters) long with a diameter of 7.5 feet (2.347 meters). The weight of the Gemini varied from ship to ship but was approximately 7,000 pounds (3,175 kilograms). At launch, Gemini IV weighed 7,879.05 pounds (3,573.88 kilograms).
NASA Mission Report, Figure 3-1, at Page 3–23
The Titan II GLV was a “man-rated” variant of the Martin Marietta SM-68B intercontinental ballistic missile. It was assembled at Martin’s Middle River, Maryland, plant so as not to interfere with the production of the ICBM at Denver, Colorado. Twelve GLVs were ordered by the Air Force for the Gemini Program.
The Titan II GLV was a two-stage, liquid-fueled rocket. The first stage was 63 feet (19.202 meters) long with a diameter of 10 feet (3.048 meters). The second stage was 27 feet (8.230 meters) long, with the same diameter.
The 1st stage was powered by an Aerojet Engineering Corporation LR-87-7 engine which combined two combustion chambers and exhaust nozzles with a single turbopump unit. The engine was fueled by a hypergolic combination of hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide. Ignition occurred spontaneously as the two components were combined in the combustion chambers. The LR-87-7 produced 430,000 pounds of thrust.² It was not throttled and could not be shut down and restarted. The 2nd stage used an Aerojet LR-91 engine which produced 100,000 pounds of thrust.³
The Gemini/Titan II GLV combination had a total height of 109 feet (33.223 meters) and weighed approximately 340,000 pounds (154,220 kilograms) when fueled.
¹ When identifying spaceflight missions, NASA was inconsistent in using Roman numerals (Gemini IV) or Arabic (Gemini 4), even switching from one to the other in consecutive paragraphs in official reports.
² The Gemini IV first stage engine produced a flight average of 467,870 pounds of thrust (2,081.19 kilonewtons).
³ The Gemini IV second stage engine produced a flight average of 103,103 pounds of thrust (458.63 kilonewtons).
