Failures in World Astronautics

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Failures in World Astronautics

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Why it’s important to know about mistakes in astronautics:
1. Money – astronautics is extremely expensive
2. Time – rocket cannot reach some planet if you launch it
in wrong time
3. Lives – some people carrying rockets should be safe as
much as possible

3.

The Vanguard TV3 Failure (1957,
USA)
What happened: First US satellite
launch failed—exploded on live TV.
Cause: Rushed engineering
(response to USSR’s Sputnik).
Lesson: Led to NASA’s creation
(1958) and stricter quality control.

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Team of scientists put a satellite into rocket

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Nedelin Catastrophe (1960, USSR)

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Why explosion happened:
1. Marshall Mitrofan Nedelin
who was a chief of R-16
program pushed launch
2. Second step of the missile
turned on
3. Safety precautions were
violated

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Apollo 1 Fire
(1967, USA)
Astronauts (left to right) Gus
Grissom, Ed White, and Roger
Chaffee

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Remnants of the cabin interior

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Causes of the failure:
1. Oxygen was used as an
atmosphere gas for astronauts,
it was under slight pressure
2. Everything could cause a fire
3. Official reason of it is short
circuit

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Space Shuttle
Challenger (1986,
USA)

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(back) Onizuka, McAuliffe,
Jarvis, Resnik; (front) Smith,
Scobee, McNair

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Reasons of the
explosion:
O-ring couldn’t
tolerate low
temperatures and
fell apart