Payload Fairing - Launch Failures Caused By Payload Fairings

Launch Failures Caused By Payload Fairings

The Augmented Target Docking Adapter was placed into orbit by an Atlas SLV-3 in June 1966. When the Gemini 9A spacecraft rendezvoused with it in an attempt to dock, the crew discovered that two lanyards which should have been removed before flight were still in place, preventing the fairing from opening completely, thus covering up the docking port.

In 1999, the launch of the IKONOS-1 Earth observation satellite failed after the payload fairing of the Athena II rocket did not open properly.

On February 24, 2009, NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory satellite failed to reach orbit after liftoff presumably because the fairing on the Taurus XL launch vehicle failed to separate, causing the vehicle to retain too much mass and subsequently fall back to Earth; it landed in the Indian Ocean near Antarctica.

The same happened to the Naro-1, South Korea's first carrier rocket, launched on 25 August 2009. During the launch half of the payload's fairing failed to separate, and as a result the rocket was thrown off course. The satellite did not reach a stable orbit.

On March 4, 2011 NASA's Glory satellite launch failed to reach orbit after lift-off due to a fairing separation failure on the Orbital Sciences Taurus XL Launch Vehicle. This failure represented the second consecutive failure of a fairing on an Orbital Sciences Taurus XL vehicle.