🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1988Mar31.192910.406@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes:
>As I recall, there was at least one serious failure of the Little Joe II --
>but the test was declared a success because the escape system functioned
>properly and got the Apollo away from the unintended mess!
>-- 

There were 5 LJ-II missions. The first was a short test of the actual 
vehicle, followed by 4 operational flights. You're thinking of the
third mission, A-003. This was supposed to test the LES at the high
altitude region of the S-IB and S-V launch trajectories, in the 
120,000 foot area.

At 2.6 seconds into the flight, one of the elevons went whacko, putting
the rocket into a very high spin rate, which reached 335 deg/sec.
At T+24.4 seconds it started to break up when the centrifugal 
accelerations hit 4Gs, since the rocket motors were rated to only
2Gs. The abort took place 2 seconds later when the entire rocket
disintegrated at an altitude of about 12,500 feet. Even though the 
launch was a flop, 9 out of the 10 tests were fulfilled, so the flight
was called a success.

The other missions also involved vehicle destruction, but as a part of
the actual test. The films of these things are pretty spectacular.




-- 
			   *** mike (Cyberpunk in training) smithwick ***
"After all, isn't our only real purpose in life merely to make the person
 next to us slightly more insane than we are?" - Me
[disclaimer : nope, I don't work for NASA, I take full blame for my ideas]