Ups and Downs for January

[GordonD]

26 JANUARY

 

1962 Ranger 3 launch

 

Ranger 3 was an unmanned probe intended to provide close-up photographs of the lunar surface. The first two craft in the series had failed to leave Earth orbit after problems with the upper stage of their launch vehicles but Ranger 3 did manage this. Unfortunately an error in the guidance programme meant that it missed the Moon by 36,793km. Unlike the two earlier probes, which were intended to be fly-bys, Ranger 3 was actually meant to hit the Moon. An instrument capsule in a balsa wood sphere would have been ejected at an altitude of about 21km to land separately and, it was hoped, send back data about the surface itself. Because of the guidance error this never took place.

[GordonD]

27 JANUARY

 

1967 Apollo 1 pad fire

Crew: Virgil Grissom (CDR), Ed White (SP), Roger Chaffee (P)

 

With the Gemini programme triumphantly concluded focus shifted to Apollo, with the first manned mission scheduled for late February. However during a countdown demonstration test the crew reported a fire in the spacecraft. The Command Module was filled with pure oxygen at 16.7psi (2psi above normal sea-level atmospheric pressure) which caused materials not normally considered flammable to burst into flame. Efforts to open the hatch were in vain as on the Block I spacecraft it opened inwards and the higher pressure prevented this. The flames prevented Grissom reaching the cabin vent valve, and NASA had decided against fitting explosive bolts--ironically partially because of the loss of Grissom's Liberty Bell 7 Mercury capsule, which sank when the hatch accidentally blew off while he was awaiting pick-up after splashdown. The fire caused the internal pressure to increase still further to the point where the Command Module burst open, the rush of escaping oxygen causing the flames to spread across the cabin. As normal air replaced the pure oxygen the fire was effectively quenched but high concentrations of carbon monoxide filled the cabin. It took five minutes for the pad crew to open the hatch, by which time the crew were long dead--not burned but asphyxiated by the CO fumes they inhaled as their space-suits melted. Grissom and Chaffee were buried at Arlington National Cemetery; White, at West Point Cemetery. The Apollo programme came to an abrupt halt and it would be nearly two years before the first manned mission, in an almost totally redesigned spacecraft.

 

 

1985 STS-51C landing

Crew: Ken Mattingly (CDR), Loren Shriver (P), Ellison Onizuka, James Buchli (MS), Gary Payton (PS)

Landing site: Kennedy Space Centre

 

Flight time: 3d 1h 33m

[GordonD]

28 JANUARY

 

STS-51L

Crew: Dick Scobee (CDR), Michael Smith (P), Ron McNair, Judy Resnik, Ellison Onizuka (MS), Greg Jarvis, Christa McAuliffe (PS)

 

(25th Shuttle mission; 10th flight of Challenger)

STS-51L was the highest-profile Shuttle mission for some time due to the presence on board of schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe, chosen to demonstrate how 'safe' and 'routine' space travel had become. This impression was shattered just 73 seconds after lift-off when the vehicle exploded, resulting in the loss of all on board -- a situation made even more tragic because the launch was being covered live on TV and a large proportion of American school students were watching. A lengthy investigation found that the cause of the disaster was the failure of two rubbery O-rings, intended to seal the joints between segments of the Solid Rocket Boosters, to settle properly in place due to the abnormally low temperature which made them stiffer than usual. This allowed the flame from the burning solid fuel to escape through the joint -- by tragic coincidence right next to one of the booster's rear attachment points. This acted like a blowtorch and cut through the strut, allowing the booster to pivot on its forward attachment and puncture the External Tank, resulting in the huge fireball seen on television. The two SRBs emerged from the fireball and were blown up by the Range Safety Officer, while the Orbiter itself broke up from the aerodynamic stresses as it turned sideways at Mach 3. When the crew cabin was eventually recovered it was found that some of the emergency air packs had been turned on, indicating that at least some of the astronauts had survived the initial break-up and may have been alive up until the point where it impacted the ocean. However it is unknown whether they were conscious during the descent -- one hopes not. The investigation criticised NASA for pressing ahead with the launch in spite of recommendations not to proceed -- it was felt there was a culture of "prove it's not safe to launch" rather than "prove it is". The Shuttle programme was suspended for two and a half years while the SRB joint was redesigned.

[GordonD]

29 JANUARY

 

1964 SA-5

 

SA-5 was the fifth launch of a Saturn I but the first to have a live upper stage. As such it was the first flight of the Saturn test programme to place a payload in orbit. While later flights would carry a dummy Apollo CSM, this launch (like its predecessors) had a simple aerodynamic nosecone, actually from a Jupiter missile. At a total of about seventeen tonnes the combined S-IV stage, adapter and nose­cone was easily the heaviest payload placed in orbit to date. This remained in orbit for 821 days, burning up on 30 April 1966.

 

 

1998 Soyuz TM-27 launch

Crew: Talgat Musabayev (CDR), Nikolai Budarin (FE), Léopold Eyharts [France] (RC)

 

Musabeyev and Budarin would form Mir Expedition 25, with French spationaut Eyharts along for the ride as Research Cosmonaut. He would return to Earth with the Expedition 24 crew in about three weeks' time. It had been hoped that the Soyuz could dock with Mir while STS-89 Endeavour was still there, resulting in a total of 13 people in orbit aboard a single complex but the French vetoed this as they felt it would interfere with Eyharts's experimental programme. Thus, while Endeavour was still in space when Soyuz docked with Mir, it had already departed and was about to return to Earth.

[GordonD]

30 JANUARY

 

1992 STS-42 landing

Crew: Ron Grabe (CDR), Stephen Oswald (P), Norm Thagard, Bill Readdy, David Hilmers (MS), Roberta Bondar [Canada], Ulf Merbold [Germany] (PS)

Landing site: Edwards AFB

 

Flight time: 8d 1h 15m

 

[GordonD]

31 JANUARY

 

1961 MR-2

 

With a successful test of the Mercury-Redstone combination completed, NASA pressed ahead by repeating the flight with a chimpanzee aboard the spacecraft. The seven astronauts then in training for the Mercury programme were less than pleased by this, for it appeared to show that they were effectively little more than passengers aboard capsules that really flew themselves. But it was a most necessary test, proving that the Mercury-Redstone combination could carry a living creature on a sub-orbital flight before it was attempted with a man. The chimpanzee Ham was launched nearly four hours late after numerous holds. The Redstone climbed more steeply than planned, due to a stuck thrust regulator, and towards the end of the burn period the escape system cut in and hauled the capsule clear. The peak altitude reached was 253km, 68km higher than planned, and maximum velocity was 9,246km/hr, 1/180km/hr faster than expected, which all added up to the spacecraft coming down 212km too far downrange. Impact on landing punctured a pressure bulkhead, and the spacecraft was shipping water and in danger of sinking by the time the recovery forces reached it. To add to Ham’s problems, the cabin itself had partially depressurised during the flight when a valve was jarred open, but the chimp was safe inside a separate pressure vessel simulating the space-suit which an astronaut would have been wearing. Despite the setbacks, the mission was deemed a success, though the thrust regulator in particular would turn out to have a major effect on space history. Ham, the first animal to be sent into space aboard an American spacecraft, retired to a North Carolina zoo where he died in 1983 at the age of 26.

 

 

1971 Apollo 14 launch

Crew: Alan Shepard (CDR); Edgar Mitchell (LMP); Stuart Roosa (CMP)

 

Third lunar landing

CSM: Kitty Hawk; LM: Antares

The flight was delayed several months because of the modifications needed due to the Apollo 13 accident. Shepard's crew had in fact been scheduled to fly Apollo 13 but their lack of space experience--only fifteen minutes between them--resulted in them being switched with the Lovell-Haise-Mattingly team. Apolo 13's target had been the Fra Mauro region of the Moon and this was seen as a site of such scientific importance that 14 was redirected there, so in effect Shepard was carrying out the mission he would have flown anyway. Problems were experienced during the transposition and docking manoeuvre, when the CSM turns round and extracts the LM from its position atop the S-IVB stage: it took six attempts before the two craft finally managed to link securely together. Further problems were experienced during the lunar landing: first, the LM computer began getting abort signals: was this to happen when the descent engine was running the ascent engine would be fired automatically. A software fix was found in time and the changes relayed to the astronauts. Then during powered descent the LM landing radar failed to lock on, finally returning a signal at the last possible moment before the crew would have to abort. (Later Shepard was asked if he would have pressed ahead and tried to land without the radar: he refused to answer!) Despite all of this the landing was the most accurate of all the Apollo missions, and two EVAs were carried out, though an attempt to walk to the rim of Cone Crater had to be abandoned as the crew were becoming tired. Later analysis showed they had got within 20m of their goal. Before returning to the LM, Shepard famously produced two golf balls and with a club head attached to the handle of a sampling tool played two shots.  Lunar lift-off was normal and there was no repetition of the docking problem.

 

 

1998 STS-89 landing

Crew: Terry Wilcutt (CDR), Joe Edwards (P), James Reilly, Michael Anderson, Bonnie Jean Dunbar, Salizhan Sharipov [Russia], David Wolf (MS)

Landing site: Kennedy Space Center

 

Flight time for the main crew: 8d 19h 47m.  Wolf had been resident on Mir and his time was 127d 20h 0m

[Bengalensis]

Many thanks for the month of January! I've had many good moments and thoughts reading the happenings of each date. I very much appreciate all the work you are putting into this thread.

[Eric Mc]

On 27/01/2019 at 09:44, GordonD said:

27 JANUARY

 

1967 Apollo 1 pad fire

Crew: Virgil Grissom (CDR), Ed White (SP), Roger Chaffee (P)

 

With the Gemini programme triumphantly concluded focus shifted to Apollo, with the first manned mission scheduled for late February. However during a countdown demonstration test the crew reported a fire in the spacecraft. The Command Module was filled with pure oxygen at 16.7psi (2psi above normal sea-level atmospheric pressure) which caused materials not normally considered flammable to burst into flame. Efforts to open the hatch were in vain as on the Block I spacecraft it opened inwards and the higher pressure prevented this. The flames prevented Grissom reaching the cabin vent valve, and NASA had decided against fitting explosive bolts--ironically partially because of the loss of Grissom's Liberty Bell 7 Mercury capsule, which sank when the hatch accidentally blew off while he was awaiting pick-up after splashdown. The fire caused the internal pressure to increase still further to the point where the Command Module burst open, the rush of escaping oxygen causing the flames to spread across the cabin. As normal air replaced the pure oxygen the fire was effectively quenched but high concentrations of carbon monoxide filled the cabin. It took five minutes for the pad crew to open the hatch, by which time the crew were long dead--not burned but asphyxiated by the CO fumes they inhaled as their space-suits melted. Grissom and Chaffee were buried at Arlington National Cemetery; White, at West Point Cemetery. The Apollo programme came to an abrupt halt and it would be nearly two years before the first manned mission, in an almost totally redesigned spacecraft.

 

 

1985 STS-51C landing

Crew: Ken Mattingly (CDR), Loren Shriver (P), Ellison Onizuka, James Buchli (MS), Gary Payton (PS)

Landing site: Kennedy Space Centre

 

Flight time: 3d 1h 33m

It is a bit of a myth that the spacecraft was totally redesigned following the fire. The "redesigned" spacecraft was already being built even BEFORE the fire. The main improvements made after the fire were in better checking of likely flamabillity issues within the spacecraft and much improved quality control at North American Aviation.

 

The "improved" spacecraft i.e. the Block II Command and Service Module, had begun to be designed in 1962 because the original Block I design (which would have been used for Apollo 1) had no docking probe or tunnel and did not have a hatch that could be opened for EVA use. This was because the Block I Apollo spacecraft was based on the original Apollo concept which would have had the entire Command and Service Module landing on the moon.

[GordonD]

I didn't say it was totally redesigned because of the fire...   🤔

 

Okay, it was an over-simplification. I'm just glad that someone other than Bengalensis is actually reading it!

[Eric Mc]

You do hear comments that the Apollo Command Module was "completely redesigned" after the fire. There were, of course, some important changes - but the basic Block II as wqas coming down the line anyway was not signifcantly altered because of the fire.

 

This part of the quotation you showed does intimate that the fire led to a massive redesign - which is not really the case.

 

"The Apollo programme came to an abrupt halt and it would be nearly two years before the first manned mission, in an almost totally redesigned spacecraft".

 

 

[GordonD]

Wasn't a quotation; the wording - and the blame - is entirely mine.

[Eric Mc]

No problem.

 

I would suggest that anyone interested in the history of what happened after the fire watch the documentary shown below. It was made in 1979 and features an interview with various Apollo astronauts who get into a bit of a verbal spat over the impact of the fire. The comments by Jim McDivitt were what first alerted me to the fact that nothing was substantially redesigned after the fire - just fireproofed (up to a point) . The programme is called "The Other Side of the Moon" ad the discussion begins at 25:20 into the programme.