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Atlas Mercury Booster ID



 
 
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  #1  
Old November 10th 04, 01:55 AM
SteveO
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Default Atlas Mercury Booster ID

I have an old photograph of an Atlas-Mercury spacecraft on the pad,
and at the base of the Atlas booster is the number 670 (or possibly
620). Does anyone out there know which launch this corresponds to?

Thanks

- SteveO
  #2  
Old November 10th 04, 04:25 AM
Jim Davis
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SteveO wrote:

I have an old photograph of an Atlas-Mercury spacecraft on the pad,
and at the base of the Atlas booster is the number 670 (or possibly
620). Does anyone out there know which launch this corresponds to?


The number probably reads 67D, which would make it the unmanned
Mercury-Atlas 2 (MA-2) launch of February 21, 1961.

Jim Davis
  #3  
Old November 10th 04, 06:05 AM
Pat Flannery
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Jim Davis wrote:

The number probably reads 67D, which would make it the unmanned
Mercury-Atlas 2 (MA-2) launch of February 21, 1961.


Speaking of Atlas rockets- last night I was watching the Discovery Wings
channel, and their program "Secret Satellite" about the Corona program.
At one point they show footage of what appears to be a Atlas-Agena (it's
from quite a distance, so it's a bit hard to be certain) in which the
unfueled rocket is sitting on the pad when the Agena falls off the top
as the Atlas suffers a Lox tank failure and comes apart like shredding
aluminum foil- does anyone know about this particular incident? Did the
Lox tank lose it's nitrogen stabilizing pressure, or was it
over-pressurized and rupture?
It might have been a Thor-Agena, but it looked more Atlas-Agena to me.

Pat

  #4  
Old November 10th 04, 03:34 PM
Henry Spencer
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In article ,
Pat Flannery wrote:
At one point they show footage of what appears to be a Atlas-Agena (it's
from quite a distance, so it's a bit hard to be certain) in which the
unfueled rocket is sitting on the pad when the Agena falls off the top
as the Atlas suffers a Lox tank failure and comes apart like shredding
aluminum foil- does anyone know about this particular incident?


As it happens, the September issue of Spaceflight had an article by Joel
Powell on "unreported Atlas depressurization accidents".

You probably saw the Atlas-Agena collapse sequence from the Vandenberg PAO
videotape "30 Years of Glory", which was unidentified for a number of
years. It's now thought to have been Atlas 190D, destroyed 11 May 1963,
probably during facilities checkout or crew training in preparation for
the first KH-7 GAMBIT launch (which occurred two months later). The Agena
and payload do not seem to have been flight hardware.

Did the Lox tank lose it's nitrogen stabilizing pressure, or was it
over-pressurized and rupture?


A gas bubble in the plumbing created a hydraulic ram effect that damaged
the LOX plumbing connections to the Atlas. The launch crew managed to
drain the LOX tank but ended up depressurizing it in the process, and so
it collapsed, dropping the Agena. The still-full Atlas RP-1 tank then
split and spilled, but fortuitously there was no fire or explosion, and
after cleanup the pad needed only minor repairs.
--
"Think outside the box -- the box isn't our friend." | Henry Spencer
-- George Herbert |
  #5  
Old November 10th 04, 06:15 PM
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The "67D" number was the Atlas "tail number". It showed that this was
the 67th D-series Atlas booster built - one of several Atlas-D boosters
that were built on Convair's ICBM production line for the Mercury Atlas
program. Other D-series Atlas vehicles, which had radio-inertial
guidance, were used for ICBM test launches, served as operational
missiles on standby, or were topped by Agena upper stages for unmanned
space missions.
- Ed Kyle

http://www.geocities.com/launchreport/

  #6  
Old November 10th 04, 07:25 PM
Rusty B
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Pat Flannery wrote in message ...
Jim Davis wrote:

The number probably reads 67D, which would make it the unmanned
Mercury-Atlas 2 (MA-2) launch of February 21, 1961.


Speaking of Atlas rockets- last night I was watching the Discovery Wings
channel, and their program "Secret Satellite" about the Corona program.
At one point they show footage of what appears to be a Atlas-Agena (it's
from quite a distance, so it's a bit hard to be certain) in which the
unfueled rocket is sitting on the pad when the Agena falls off the top
as the Atlas suffers a Lox tank failure and comes apart like shredding
aluminum foil- does anyone know about this particular incident? Did the
Lox tank lose it's nitrogen stabilizing pressure, or was it
over-pressurized and rupture?
It might have been a Thor-Agena, but it looked more Atlas-Agena to me.


According to Joel Powell on the Yahoo Group - Missile Talk:

"The first (and only) book about Atlas was published way back in 1960:
John Chapman's "Atlas, The Story of a Missile.

I am pleased to announce that the long wait for a
follow-on Atlas book is over - Apogee Books will publish "Atlas - The
Ultimate Weapon, By Those Who Built It" in the Spring of 2005. The
author is
Chuck Walker, a former General Dynamics (Convair-Astronautics)
engineer who
was involved in the development and planning of the Atlas missile from
1953
through the 1960's. The book covers the development and testing of
Atlas
from the MX-774 precursor in 1948 to the Atlas A prototype in 1957-58.
Construction of the Atlas D, E and F bases are covered in detail, as
is the
testing, deployment (and decommissioning) of the Atlas weapons from
1959 to
1965.

The second part of the book covers Atlas' second career as a space
booster from the SCORE orbital flight in late 1958 to the upcoming
retirement
of the original balloon-tank Atlas in February 2005. A complete
chronology
of all 582 Atlas launches is included in the appendices. This book
will be
extensively illustrated with many unique photographs from the former
Convair
archives now housed at the San Diego Aerospace Museum.
Details such as the page count, format and price are not yet
available,
but the author or myself (contributing editor) would be happy to
answer
inquiries about the book (see attachment). Details should be released
early
next year at the website of Apogee Books.

Joel Powell"




- Rusty Barton
  #7  
Old November 10th 04, 09:03 PM
Pat Flannery
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Henry Spencer wrote:


You probably saw the Atlas-Agena collapse sequence from the Vandenberg PAO
videotape "30 Years of Glory", which was unidentified for a number of
years. It's now thought to have been Atlas 190D, destroyed 11 May 1963,
probably during facilities checkout or crew training in preparation for
the first KH-7 GAMBIT launch (which occurred two months later). The Agena
and payload do not seem to have been flight hardware.


That's nice to know, I'd hate to be near the pad when a load of
hydrazine and nitric acid comes plummeting out of the sky towards me.
What really comes across in the video is how thin the balloon tanks on
the Atlas were. You read about that a lot, but in the film they look
about as sturdy as the aluminum foil dome over a pan of Jiffy-Pop
popcorn- they don't just rupture, they spread out in the wind like a
ship's sails.

  #9  
Old November 10th 04, 11:15 PM
SteveO
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Jim Davis wrote in message .1.4...

The number probably reads 67D, which would make it the unmanned
Mercury-Atlas 2 (MA-2) launch of February 21, 1961.

Jim Davis


Thanks, Jim - under a magnifying lens, it does seem to be 67D. Pity -
as a Boulder, Colorado resident, I was hoping that it depicted Scott
Carpenter's ride. On a related note, is there any place where I can
find out if Scott Carpenter has an upcoming autograph session? Even
though it isn't his launch, an autographed photo from the glory days
would still look really nice on the office wall (never mind that I was
still in diapers when he flew).

- SteveO
  #10  
Old November 11th 04, 10:14 AM
Pat Flannery
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SteveO wrote:

Thanks, Jim - under a magnifying lens, it does seem to be 67D. Pity -
as a Boulder, Colorado resident, I was hoping that it depicted Scott
Carpenter's ride.


You could print out this shot of his launch:
http://www.apolloexplorer.co.uk/phot...7/10073698.htm

On a related note, is there any place where I can
find out if Scott Carpenter has an upcoming autograph session? Even
though it isn't his launch, an autographed photo from the glory days
would still look really nice on the office wall (never mind that I was
still in diapers when he flew).


Throw him a real curve ball and show up with a photo of Sealab II or III

Pat

 




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