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.
Read more about this topic: Payload Fairing
Famous quotes containing the words launch, failures and/or caused:
“Now launch the small ship, now as the body dies
and life departs, launch out, the fragile soul
in the fragile ship of courage, the ark of faith
with its store of food and little cooking pans
and change of clothes,”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“Maybe it’s understandable what a history of failures America’s foreign policy has been. We are, after all, a country full of people who came to America to get away from foreigners. Any prolonged examination of the U.S. government reveals foreign policy to be America’s miniature schnauzer—a noisy but small and useless part of the national household.”
—P.J. (Patrick Jake)
“‘Oh the withy, the withy, the bitter withy
That has caused me to smart,
The withy shall be the very first tree
Fort to perish all at the heart.’”
—Unknown. The Bitter Withy (l. 31–34)