Project Centaur Progress Report 3rd Quarter 1959 USAF-Convair; Liquid Hydrogen Upper Stage

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Originally a public domain film, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.

The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centaur_(rocket_stage)

Wikipedia license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

The Centaur is a family of rocket stages. They are designed to be the upper stage of space launch vehicles and is used on the Atlas V. Centaur was the world's first high-energy[clarification needed] upper stage, burning liquid hydrogen (LH2) and liquid oxygen (LOX). Centaur has enabled the launch of some of NASA's most important scientific missions during its 50-year history.

Centaur was the brainchild of Convair employees Karel Bossart (the man behind the SM-65 Atlas, an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)), and Krafft Arnold Ehricke. Their design was essentially a smaller version of the Atlas, adopting its use of lightweight "stainless steel balloon" tanks whose structural rigidity was provided solely by the pressure of the propellants within. To keep the tanks from collapsing before the propellant was loaded, they were either kept in "stretch" or pressurized with nitrogen gas.

Existing Centaur stages are powered by one (Single Engine Centaur variant) or two (Double Engine Centaur variant) RL10 rocket engines. The upcoming Centaur V will have an increased diameter powered by two RL10 engines...

In 1956, Krafft Arnold Ehricke of Convair began studying an LH2 upper stage rocket. The ensuing project began in 1958 as a joint venture among Convair, the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), and the U.S. Air Force. In 1959, NASA assumed ARPA's role. Development started at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and later moved to the Lewis Research Center, now the Glenn Research Center. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Centaur was proposed as a high energy upper stage for the Saturn I, the Saturn IB, and the Saturn V rockets under the designation "S-V" (pronounced "ess five") in accordance with the numbering of Saturn rocket stages. Centaur, however, never flew on any Saturn vehicle. The development work on Centaur proceeded slowly. The first test flight in May 1962 was unsuccessful...

Centaur was considered essential for both launching the Surveyor probes and proving the viability of LH2 as a high energy fuel. Both were important to the Apollo program. The Surveyor probes were tasked with studying the lunar regolith and confirming the feasibility of crewed landings. LH2 had been selected as the ideal propellant for the Saturn I, IB, and V upper stages.

Initial Atlas-Centaur launches used developmental versions, labeled Centaur-A through -C. The first launch on May 8, 1962, ended in an explosion 54 seconds after launch when insulation panels on the Centaur failed and caused the LH2 tank to rupture. After extensive redesigns, the next test on November 26, 1963, was successful.

On May 30, 1966, an Atlas-Centaur boosted the first Surveyor lander towards the Moon. The soft landing of Surveyor 1 in the Ocean of Storms was NASA's first landing on any extraterrestrial body...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas-Centaur

...First flight

In October 1961, the first Atlas-Centaur (Vehicle F-1: Atlas 104D and Centaur F-1) arrived at Cape Canaveral and was erected at the newly completed and specifically built LC-36As. Technical problems caused the vehicle to sit on the launch pad for seven months, the most serious being leakage of liquid hydrogen through the intermediate bulkhead separating the propellant tanks combined with numerous lesser maladies with the guidance and propulsion systems. The vehicle was launched on 8 May 1962, with the intention of performing a single burn with a partially fueled Centaur. At T+53 seconds, the Centaur stage ruptured and disintegrated, taking the Atlas with it in a matter of seconds.

...analysis of telemetry data and closer examination of the launch films quickly confirmed the Centaur as the source of trouble.

The failure was determined to be caused by an insulation panel that ripped off the Centaur during ascent, resulting in a surge in tank pressure when the LH2 overheated. The pneumatic system responded by excessive venting of propellant to reduce pressure levels, but eventually they exceeded the LH2 tank's structural strength. It then ruptured, causing flying debris to also rupture the Atlas's LOX tank, followed by complete destruction of the launch vehicle... Testing was suspended while efforts were made to correct the Centaur's design flaws...