Word: vandenbergers
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...demoralizing series of failures, the U.S. space program finally got a bit of good news last week. The Air Force announced that a mechanical glitch, rather than a major design flaw, caused its Titan 34D rocket to explode just 700 ft. above its launching pad at California's Vandenberg Air Base last April 18. Loose insulation, the result of shoddy quality control, was blamed for permitting a fatal burn-through. The Air Force predicted that the Titan, capable of lifting up to 35,000-lb. payloads, would be ready to fly again by early next year...
...problems worsened. On April 18, a startled Air Force watched its once trusty Titan rocket explode at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base. Lost in the fiery metallic shower was a Big Bird spy satellite, intended to keep a keen polar-orbit eye on the Soviets. The explosion was the second successive Titan 34D failure within a year, after nine perfect flights. NASA bravely tried another launch, and on May 3 was dismayed when its long-reliable Delta rocket, carrying a hurricane-spotting satellite, had to be detonated over Cape Canaveral after its main engine shut down prematurely...
Then, on April 18, a Titan 34D rocket blew up on launch at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base while trying to lift a Big Bird photo reconnaissance satellite into orbit. And just two days before the anniversary ceremonies were held last week, yet another U.S. space failure occurred: the main engine of a $30 million Delta rocket carrying a $57.5 million weather satellite shut down just 71 seconds after lift-off from Cape Canaveral. The Delta was destroyed by ground command. "We like to feel we're infallible," Shuttle Astronaut Bob ) Crippen told the subdued workers at the cape...
...launch team had another concern: the last two attempts to send Titan rockets into space from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California had failed, one last August, the other on April 18. Both Titans reportedly had been trying to put secret military photographic satellites in position to keep watch on the Soviet Union and the Middle East. With the shuttle program on hold and the once trusty Titan turning unreliable, America's ability to get satellites into orbit had been seriously impaired. But NASA looked with confidence to the workhorse Delta. It had flown successfully 43 consecutive times, including...
...last Jan. 28, the Pentagon has been counting on its powerful unmanned ^ Titan rockets to fill the void by carrying vital spy satellites into space. One Titan tried to lift an advanced photographic satellite into orbit last August, but the flight was aborted shortly after launch from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base. On a second try last week, another Titan exploded right after lift...