5 of the Worst Space Launch Failures

By Wired Science

Space flight is a tough business. In the 52 years since the beginning of American efforts to reach space, more than 160 launches, including that of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory on February 24, have failed. Here are some of the most devastating failures.

December 6, 1957: Vanguard TV3
The United States’ first attempt to launch a satellite into orbit was also its first failure. Two seconds after leaving the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, this rocket lost thrust and sank back down, rupturing and exploding its fuel tanks. It had reached a height of about four feet. Though the rocket was destroyed, the Vanguard satellite it was carrying was thrown clear, its transmitters still signaling. It is now on display at the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum. Image (above): NASA

April 4, 1968: Apollo 6
This was the final unmanned test for the Saturn V rocket before it would carry a three-man crew around the moon and back, and things did not go as planned. Two minutes and five seconds into launch, the rocket was severely shaken by “pogo oscillations” — variations in thrust caused by changing fuel rates (and named after the bouncy children’s toy). In unrelated flaws, parts flew off the lunar module adapter, and two of the five engines shut down prematurely during the second stage burn. Apollo 6 did manage to reach space, but never made it to its planned 100-mile circular orbit. Later, the third rocket stage would also fail to reignite. Image: NASA

January 28, 1986: Challenger
Many were watching live when the space shuttle Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven astronauts on board. At fault was the O-ring seal on the right solid rocket booster, which ruptured upon liftoff and allowed a jet of pressurized gas to rush from the motor. The resulting destruction caused the shuttle’s liquid hydrogen fuel to explode and aerodynamic forces to tear apart the orbiter. The shuttle program was suspended for 32 months while the accident was investigated. Image: NASA

May 3, 1986: GOES-G
Sometimes when it rains, it pours. This NOAA weather satellite was to be NASA’s first launch following the Challenger disaster. But the rocket was struck by lightning shortly after launch. Only 71 seconds after liftoff, an electrical fault caused the Delta 3194 rocket's first-stage engine to shut down prematurely. NASA destroyed the rocket 20 seconds later to avoid having it fall dangerously back to Earth. Image: NASA

June 21, 2005: Cosmos 1
Cosmos 1, a project of the Planetary Society and Cosmos Studios, would have been the first solar sail spacecraft, and the first space mission by a space advocacy group. Instead, the Volna rocket used to launch it from a Russian submarine never completed its scheduled burn, and the spacecraft crashed into the Barents Sea. Image: The Planetary Society

— Elise Kleeman

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