Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-27) lifts off at LC-39B, 2 December 1998. (NASA)
2 December 1988, 14:30:34 UTC: At 9:30 a.m., EST, Space Shuttle Atlantis (OV-104) launched from Pad 39B, Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida, on mission STS-27. This was the deployment of the first of five Lockheed Martin Lacrosse I reconnaissance satellites, USA-34, for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office and the Central Intelligence Agency.
Space Shuttle Atlantis climbs from LC-39 on Mission STS-27, 2 December 1988. (NASA STS027-S-006)
STS-27 was the third flight for Atlantis. It would eventually be flown 33 times.
SFlight crew of Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-27): seated, left to right, are Colonel Guy S. Gardner, USAF, pilot; Captain Robert L. Gibson, USN, mission commander, and Colonel Jerry L. Ross, USAF, mission specialist. Standing, left to right, are mission specialists Captain William M. Shepherd, USN, and Colonel Richard M. Mullane, USAF. (NASA)
Space Transport System Flight STS-27 was commanded by Captain Robert Lee Gibson, United States Navy, with Colonel Guy S. Gardner, United States Air Force, as the shuttle pilot. Three mission specialists were aboard for the mission: Colonel Richard M. Mullane, USAF; Colonel Jerry L. Ross, USAF; and Captain William B. Shepherd, a United States Navy SEAL.
Atlantis STS-27 accelerates toward orbit. (NASA)
Approximately 1 minute, 25 seconds after liftoff, insulating material from the right solid rocket booster (SRB) came off and struck the orbiter. The damage to the thermal tiles on the shuttle’s right side was extensive. More than 700 tiles were damaged and one was completely missing.
This image is believed to be of a Lockheed Martin Lacrosse reconnaissance satellite. Two technicians give scale to the Lacrosse.
Atlantis completed 68 orbits during this mission. It landed on Runway 17, Edwards Air Force Base, California, 6 December 1988, at 23:36:11 UTC (4:36 p.m., PST). The duration of the flight was 4 days, 9 hours, 5 minutes, 37 seconds.
Atlantis touches down on Rogers Dry Lake, on the afternoon of 6 December 1988. (NASA)
Vanguard 3 is launched aboard Vanguard SLV-7 from Launch Complex 18A at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, 12:20:07 a.m., EST, 18 September 1959. (NASA Marshall Space Flight Center MSFC-9139356)
18 September 1959: At 12:20:07 a.m., Eastern Standard Time (05:20:07 UTC), a three-stage Vanguard Satellite Launch Vehicle lifted off from Launch Complex 18A at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on the eastern coast of Florida. The rocket placed a 50 pound (22.7 kilogram) scientific satellite, Vanguard 3 (also known as Vanguard III) into Earth orbit. Orbital injection occurred at 05:29:49, 9 minutes, 35 seconds after launch, at 27,195 feet per second (98,239 meters per second). The orbit was inclined 33.350°. The satellite’s perigee, the closest point in its orbit to Earth, was 512.00 kilometers (318.142 statute miles), and its apogee, 3,750.00 kilometers (2,330.142 statute miles). The orbital period was 2 hours, 10 minutes, 9 seconds.
Vanguard III flight backup. (NASA)Vanguard 3 being installed on the Vanguard SLV-7 launch vehicle by NASA engineer R.J. Andryshak (left) and D.R. Corbin. (NASA)
Contained inside the satellite’s 1 foot, 8.0 inch (50.8 centimeter) diameter magnesium spherical outer shell were sensors and transmitters. The satellite collected data on the Earth’s magnetic field, the Van Allen Radiation Belt, micrometeorite impacts on the satellite, and measured drag acting to slow the satellite in its orbit. The 2 foot, 2 inch (0.66 meter) cone-shaped structure at the top of the satellite contains a magnetometer.
Vanguard 3 transmitted data for 84 days before its batteries failed. It is estimated that it will remain in orbit around the Earth for 300 years.
The Vanguard Satellite Launch Vehicle was a three-stage rocket, using liquid fuel for the first and second stages, while the third stage used a solid fuel rocket motor. It was built by the Glenn L. Martin Company at Baltimore, Maryland. The rocket had a total length of 71 feet, 6.721 inches (21.8115 meters), including the payload fairing. SLV-7 (also known as TV-4BU) was an unused test article. The all-up vehicle weighed 23,143 pounds (10,497.488 kilograms) at the time of the firing signal.
A Vanguard rocket (TV-2) at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Launch Complex 18A. (Dan Beaumont Space Museum)
The Vanguard first stage was powered by a General Electric Hermes X-405 (LR50-GE-1) engine, fueled by liquid oxygen and Shell Oil Company Jet B (a naptha-kerosene fuel used for turbojet engines in cold weather conditions). The propellant system was pressurized with helium. Hydrogen peroxide was used to drive the engine’s turbopump. The X-405 weighed 425 pounds (192.8 kilograms) and produced 27,835 pounds of thrust (123.816 kilonewtons) at Sea Level. The first stage was 39 feet, 7.243 inches (12.0712 meters) long and 3 feet, 9 inches (1,143 meters) in diameter. Its empty weight was 1,599 pounds (725.29 kilograms). The stage had a burn time of 2 minutes, 30 seconds.
AJ10-37
The second stage was 18 feet, 7.54 inches (5.6779 meters) long and 2 feet, 8 inches (0.8128 meters) diameter, and had an empty weight 1,013 pounds (459.49 kilograms). It was powered by an Aerojet General AJ10-37 engine, fueled by a hypergolic mixture of white inhibited fuming nitric acid (WIFNA) and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH). The engine weighed 386 pounds (175.09 kilograms). It produced 7,500 pounds (33.362 kilonewtons) thrust in vacuum. It had a burn time of 2 minutes.
The Vanguard SLV-7 third stage was 5 feet, 10.29 inches (1.7854 meters) long and 2 feet, 8 inches (0.8128 meters) in diameter. It weighed 50.9 pounds (23.09 kilograms) burn time 37 seconds. The engine was a solid fuel Allegany Ballistic Laboratory ¹ JATO X-248 A2, originally designed for rocket assisted takeoff for fixed wing aircraft. The engine was 4 feet, 10.2 inches (1.478 meters) long, 1 foot, 6.0 inches (0.457 meters) in diameter, and weighed 203 pounds (92.1 kilograms). It produced 3,070 pounds (13.656 kilonewtons) of thrust and had a burn time of 37 seconds.
Vanguard third stage X-248 A2 solid rocket motor (NASM A19680576000).
The satellite was enclosed in a conical phenolic plastic fairing, which had a titanium tip.. The fairing was 12 feet, 6.72 inches (3.8283 meters) long. The cone angled 20° from its axis.
Third stage was left attached to the satellite. The total mass placed in orbit was 94.6 pounds (42.91 kilograms).
¹ Allegany Ballistics Laboratory was a Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) facility, operated by the Hercules Powder Company.
Viking 1/Titan IIIE-Centaur launches from Kennedy Space Centaur, enroute to Mars, 20 August 1975. (NASA)
20 August 1975: The Viking 1 space probe was launched from Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard a Titan IIIE/Centaur rocket. For the next ten months it traveled to Mars, the fourth planet of the Solar System. Once there, it was placed in orbit and began sending telemetry data back to Earth. A Viking Lander descended to the planet’s surface, landing at Chryse Planitia.
This was the first time that a spacecraft had landed on another planet. The orbiter continued to operate over the course of 1,485 orbits. As it ran low on fuel, mission controllers boosted it into a higher orbit to prevent it falling to the planet. Orbiter operations were terminated 17 August 1980. The lander operated for 6 years, 116 days, before the mission was terminated by a faulty transmission which resulted in a loss of contact, 11 November 1982.
The surface of Chryse Planitia, Mars, photographed by the Viking 1 Lander. (NASA)
Thor-Able 127 being prepared for launch at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. (U.S. Air Force)
17 August 1958: In what was the first attempt to launch a spacecraft beyond Earth orbit, Thor-Able 1 (Missile Number 127) was to place a small instrumented satellite in orbit around the Moon. Called Pioneer,¹ the satellite carried a television camera, a micrometeorite detector and a magnetometer.
The mission was carried out by the U.S. Air Force Ballistic Missile Division and the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA).
The Thor-Able lifted off from Launch Complex 17A at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, at 12:28:00 UTC, 4 minutes behind schedule.
73.6 seconds into the flight, at an altitude of 9.9 miles (16 kilometers), the first stage of the rocket exploded. Telemetry from the upper stages continued and was tracked until impact in the Atlantic Ocean.
An investigation found the cause of the explosion to be a turbopump failure. It was determined that a bearing in the pump’s gearbox seized, halting the flow of liquid oxygen.
The Thor Able was a two-stage orbital launch vehicle which was developed from the Douglas Aircraft Company’s SM-75 Thor intermediate-range ballistic missile.
Designated Thor DM-19, the first stage was 60.43 feet (18.42 meters) long and 8 feet (2.44 meters) in diameter. Fully fueled, the first stage had a gross weight of 108,770 pounds (49,337 kilograms). It was powered by a Rocketdyne LR-79-7 engine which burned liquid oxygen and RP-1 (a highly-refined kerosene rocket fuel) and produced 170,565 pounds of thrust (758.711 kilonewtons). This stage had a burn time of 2 minutes, 45 seconds.
The second stage was an Aerojet General Corporation-built Able, a second stage for the U.S. Navy’s Vanguard rocket. It was 21 feet, 6.6 inches (6.57 meters) long with a maximum diameter of 2 feet, 9 inches (0.84 meters), and had a gross weight of 5,000 pounds (2,268 kilograms). It used an Aerojet AJ10-101 rocket engine which burned a hypergolic mixture of nitric acid and UDMH. The second stage produced 7,711 pounds of thrust (34.300 kilonewtons) and burned for 1 minutes, 55 seconds.
Thor-Able second stage being prepared to mount to the Thor 127 first stage. (Drew ex Machina)
The Altair X248 third stage was developed by the Alleghany Ballistics Laboratory for the U.S. Navy’s Vanguard rocket. It was 4 feet, 11 inches (1.499 meters) long, 2 feet, 7 inches (0.787 meters) in diameter, and weighed 505 pounds (229 kilograms). It was powered by a solid fuel rocket engine producing 2,300 pounds (10.231 kilonewtons) of thrust. Its burn time was 38 seconds.
Thor-Able 127 lifts off from Launch Complex 17A, 17 August 1958. (NASA)
The first Pioneer space probe is today designated Pioneer 0. It was built by the Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation’s Space Technologies Laboratory (STL) in Redondo Beach, California.
The lunar probe was the fourth stage of the Thor-Able launch vehicle. It was 74 centimeters (2 feet, 5.13 inches) in diameter, 76 centimeters (2 feet, 5.9 inches) long, and weighed 38.1 kilograms (83.996 pounds). The probe’s external shell was constructed of metal and fiberglass. It carried 11.3 kilograms (24.9 pounds) of instruments designed to measure magnetic fields, radiation and micrometeorites. It also carried an infrared camera system intended to obtain close-up images of The Moon’s surface. Pioneer 0 was spin-stabilized, turning 108 r.p.m.
The probe was equipped with a Thiokol TX-8-6 solid rocket engine to decelerate it for entry into lunar orbit. The rocket engine was the main structural component of the probe. There were 8 vernier rockets to correct its trajectory.
Space Technologies Laboratory Pioneer lunar orbiter. (STL/Drew ex Machina)
The Thiokol TX-8 was produced at the U.S. Army’s Longhorn Army Ammunition Plant near Karnack, Texas. It was designed to power the GAR-1 Falcon radar-homing air-to-air guided missile (later designated AIM-4 Falcon). The rocket motor weighed 11 kilograms (24.3 pounds).
Arrangement of equipment within the Pioneer lunar orbiter. (Drew ex Machina)
Telstar 1 launches aboard a Delta rocket at Launch Complex 17B, 0835 GMT, 10 July 1962. (NASA)
10 July 1962: At 0835 GMT (4:35 a.m., EDT) the first communications relay satellite, Telstar 1, was launched into Earth orbit from Launch Complex 17B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. The launch vehicle was a three-stage liquid-fueled Delta rocket.
This was the first commercial space flight, sponsored by a consortium of communications companies and government organizations, including AT&T, Bell Labs, the BBC, NASA, and British and French postal services. The satellite was used to relay live television broadcasts across the Atlantic Ocean. This had never previously been possible.
Telstar weighed 171 pounds (77.5 kilograms). Its weight and size were restricted by the availability of launch vehicles. The satellite was placed in an elliptical orbit, varying from 591 miles (952 kilometers) to 3,686 miles (5,933 kilometers), and inclined at about a 45° angle to Earth’s Equator. The orbital period was 2 hours, 37 minutes. The properties of Telstar’s orbit restricted its use to about 20 minutes during each pass.
In addition to its primary role as a communications relay satellite, Telstar also performed scientific experiments to study the Van Allen Belt.
The Delta was a three-stage expendable launch vehicle which was developed from the Douglas Aircraft Company’s SM-75 Thor intermediate-range ballistic missile.
Designated Thor DM-19, the first stage was 60.43 feet (18.42 meters) long and 8 feet (2.44 meters) in diameter. Fully fueled, the first stage had a gross weight of 108,770 pounds (49,337 kilograms). It was powered by a Rocketdyne LR-79-7 engine which burned liquid oxygen and RP-1 (a highly-refined kerosene rocket fuel) and produced 170,565 pounds of thrust (758.711 kilonewtons). This stage had a burn time of 2 minutes, 45 seconds.
The second stage was an Aerojet General Corporation-built Delta 104. It was 19 feet, 3 inches (5.88 meters) long with a maximum diameter of 4 feet, 6 inches (1.40 meters). The second stage had a gross weight of 9,859 pounds (4,472 kilograms). It used an Aerojet AJ10-104 rocket engine which burned a hypergolic mixture of nitric acid and UDMH. The second stage produced 7,890 pounds of thrust (35.096 kilonewtons) and burned for 4 minutes, 38 seconds.
The third stage was an Allegany Ballistics Laboratory Altair 1. It was 6 feet long, 1 foot, 6 inches in diameter and had a gross weight of 524 pounds (238 kilograms). This stage used a solid-fuel Thiokol X-248 rocket engine, producing 2,799 pounds of thrust (12.451 kilonewtons). Its burn time was 4 minutes, 16 seconds.
The three stages of the Delta rocket accelerated the Telstar satellite to 14,688 miles per hour for orbital insertion.
The day prior to launch, the United States detonated a 1.45 megaton thermonuclear warhead at an altitude of 248 miles (400 kilometers), near Johnston Island in the Pacific Ocean. (Operation Dominic-Fishbowl Starfish Prime). Between 21 October 1961 and 1 November 1962, the Soviet Union detonated five nuclear warheads in space (Project K), at altitudes ranging from 59 to 300 kilometers (37–186 miles) over a test range in Khazakhstan. High energy electrons from these tests were trapped in the Earth’s radiation belts. This damaged the satellite’s circuitry and it went out of service in December 1962. ¹
Engineers were able to work around the damage and restore service by January 1963, but Telstar 1 failed permanently 21 February 1963.