Thor Missile (with Nuclear Warhead) Explodes on Launch Pad 1962-07-25 Bluegill Prime - Operation Fishbowl - Operation Dominic

more at http://quickfound.net/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Fishbowl

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

'Bluegill Prime

On July 25, 1962, a second attempt was made to launch the Bluegill device, but ended in disaster when the Thor suffered a stuck valve preventing the flow of LOX to the combustion chamber. The engine lost thrust and unburned RP-1 spilled down into the hot thrust chamber, igniting and starting a fire around the base of the missile. With the Thor engulfed in flames, the Range Safety Officer sent the destruct command, which split the rocket and ruptured both fuel tanks, completely destroying the missile and badly damaging the launch pad. The warhead charges also exploded asymmetrically and sprayed the area with the moderately radioactive core materials...

The radioactive contamination on Johnston Island was determined to be a major problem, and it was necessary to decontaminate the entire area before the badly damaged launch pad could be rebuilt...'

Originally a public domain film from the National Archives, 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/Operation_Fishbowl

Operation Fishbowl was a series of high-altitude nuclear tests in 1962 that were carried out by the United States as a part of the larger Operation Dominic nuclear test program. Flight-test vehicles were designed and manufactured by Avco Corporation...

Starfish Prime

On July 9, 1962, at 09:00:09 Coordinated Universal Time, which was nine seconds after 10 p.m. on July 8, Johnston Island local time, the Starfish Prime test was successfully detonated at an altitude of 400 kilometres (250 mi). The coordinates of the detonation were 16 degrees, 28 minutes North latitude, 169 degrees, 38 minutes West longitude (30 km, or about 18 mi, southwest of Johnston Island). The actual weapon yield was very close to the design yield, which has been described by various sources at different values in the very narrow range of 1.4 to 1.45 megatons (6.0 PJ).

The Thor missile carrying the Starfish Prime warhead actually reached an apogee (maximum height) of about 1100 km (just over 680 miles), and the warhead was detonated on its downward trajectory when it had fallen to the programmed altitude of 400 kilometres (250 mi). The nuclear warhead detonated at 13 minutes and 41 seconds after liftoff of the Thor missile.

Starfish Prime caused an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) which was far larger than expected, so much larger that it drove much of the instrumentation off scale, causing great difficulty in getting accurate measurements. The Starfish Prime electromagnetic pulse also made those effects known to the public by causing electrical damage in Hawaii, about 1,445 kilometres (900 mi) away from the detonation point, knocking out about 300 streetlights, setting off numerous burglar alarms and damaging a telephone company microwave link (the detonation time was nine seconds after 11 p.m. in Hawaii)...

After the Starfish Prime detonation, bright auroras were observed in the detonation area as well as in the southern conjugate region on the other side of the equator from the detonation...

The Starfish Prime radiation belt persisted at high altitude for many months and damaged the United States satellites Traac, Transit 4B, Injun I and Telstar I, as well as the United Kingdom satellite Ariel. It also damaged the Soviet satellite Cosmos V. All of these satellites failed completely within several months of the Starfish detonation. There is also evidence that the Starfish Prime radiation belt may have damaged the satellites Explorer 14, Explorer 15 and Relay 1. Telstar I lasted the longest of the satellites that were clearly damaged by the Starfish Prime radiation, with its complete failure occurring on February 21, 1963...

Operations pause

Operation Fishbowl test operations stopped after the disastrous failure of Bluegill Prime...

A second launch pad was constructed during the operations pause so that Operation Fishbowl could continue in the event of another serious incident...

Bluegill Double Prime

Eighty-two days after the failure of Bluegill Prime, about 30 minutes before midnight on the night of October 15, 1962, local Johnston Island time (October 16 UTC), another attempt was made at the Bluegill test. The Thor missile malfunctioned and began tumbling out of control about 85 seconds after launch, and the range safety officer ordered the destruction of the missile and its nuclear warhead about 95 seconds after launch...