Houston, we have a problem. The space race had companies,
governments and nations trying to outdo each other. Some were a roaring success,
while others were a colossal dud. Here are the Top 10 ROCKET LAUNCHES That Went Horribly Wrong!
What's up, fact-natics! This is Discovery Amuse, serving up your daily dose of the most
outrageous, outlandish, and out-of-this-world fun facts!
Stay tuned for our number 1 pick because this one changed NASA forever!
T-minus 3... 2... 1... Liftoff!
#10: Proton-M
On July 1, 2013, an uncrewed Russian rocket set out to carry three navigational satellites.
Shortly after liftoff, the Russian rocket veered off-course and skewed to the side.
If this were an exercise in changing lanes, that would have been great.
The rocket tried to correct itself, but it went veering in the opposite direction instead.
And before returning to sender, the rocket went horizontal,
much to the horror of the birds in the area who were peacefully enjoying their casual stroll.
Good news? The rocket was unmanned.
Bad news? The nearby city of Baikonour has 70,000 residents!
The rocket carried 600 tons of highly toxic chemicals,
thus, a cloud of poisonous rocket fuel got released into the air during the crash.
A week after the crash, the Russian Space Web stated that the mishap happened because the
sensors were installed upside down. Apparently, a young technician botched the installation.
You had one job, young man.
Stay tuned for our Top One Pick because that is one fiery show-stopper!
#9: Vanguard TV-3
In the heat of the space race between the US and Soviet Union,
the Soviets one-upped the Americans when they launched Sputnik in October 1957.
This made the Americans scramble to launch its own satellite as soon as possible.
On December 6 of the same year, in response to the Sputnik, the US launched Vanguard TV3. But as
millennials today would describe it, the launch was a huge "hashtag epic fail."
It only rose 4 feet into the air, before falling back into the pad and blowing to kingdom come!
Here's the kicker: the satellite still transmitted a signal as though in orbit
even though it was lying stationary on the Florida coast!
The media called the failed attempt various names, from Flopnik to Kaputnik.
"Extra, extra! Read all about it! We lost the space race! Oops!"
The vanguard satellite is currently on display at the Smithsonian Institution,
to serve as a cautionary tale to young students of the dangers of poor planning.
#8: Intelsat 708
On February 15, 1996, the Long March 3B was set to launch carrying an
Intelsat 708 communication satellite.
The rocket took off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre, located in southwestern China.
During the first 2 seconds, everything was fine. Until it wasn’t.
As you can see, that rocket will undoubtedly fail a breathalyzer test,
crashing 1,850 meters away from the launch pad!
The Xinhua News Agency reported that the incident had caused
six deaths and 57 wounded in a nearby village.
Officials initially blamed the failure on an unexpected gust of wind,
to which the wind pleaded NOT GUILTY.
As it turned out, the accident was caused by an anomaly in the flight altitude,
which appeared just 2 seconds after takeoff.
#7: Antares
When they said “fire it up,” this was not what Orbital Sciences had in mind.
On October 29, 2014, an Antares rocket was supposed to be the company's third
resupply mission to the International Space Station, carrying 5,000 pounds of supplies.
However, just 14 seconds after it launched, the rocket went up in smoke!
Too bad, the ISS astronauts must have been looking forward to their next batch
of dehydrated medium-rare steak served in a tube!
Luckily, no one was harmed by the explosion. And the six astronoauts aboard the ISS still
had a few months worth of supplies to tide them over. I guess for the time being,
they just had to settle for the leftover avocado toast in paste form.
#6: GPS IIR-1
Yup, as its name suggests, this rocket was meant to be part of the US
Air Force Global Positioning System or GPS. It was estimated to have cost 40 million dollars,
but it only took 13 seconds for all that money to turn to dust.
On January 17, 1997, the IIR-1 took off from Cape Canaveral. However,
just 13 seconds later, the flight termination system was activated
because of a crack in the rocket motor, causing it to explode.
Although nobody was killed by the crash, store windows from
10 miles away got damaged by the explosion! That's how strong it was!
Ironically, the GPS rocket didn't arrive at its destination.
#5: SpaceX Falcon 9
June 28, 2015 was a typical day at the office for Elon Musk and his team in SpaceX
when they prepared to launch their Falcon 9 rocket to deliver cargo to the ISS.
After all, they've done it successfully 18 times!
But as they say, there's always a first time for everything! Right, Mr. Musk?
Everything looked A-okay during the first few seconds of liftoff...
But after just a little over 2 minutes, the rocket appeared to be headed back to Earth!
Until it finally exploded mid-flight,
shooting fragments that looked like a meteor shower in broad daylight.
Following investigations conducted by both NASA and SpaceX,
they concluded that the failure was caused by a design flaw rather than a manufacturing defect.
Ah, space launch failures. Happens to the best of us!
#4: Atlas Centaur 1
On May 8, 1962, after being delayed for almost a year, the first Atlas Centaur
was finally launched worth the goal of aiding NASA's planetary probe projects.
But when it lifted off from Cape Canaveral for its maiden flight,
the Centaur proved to be not quite ready yet for primetime! Just 54 seconds after launch,
the controversial rocket bit the dust mid-flight.
An initial investigation showed that the insulation panels got detached,
which ruptured the rocket’s hydrogen tank.
Further investigation five years later showed that
the real cause was the differential expansion between the fiberglass
nose fairing and the stainless-steel fuel tank, which caused the forward ring to peel off.
And if like me, your head orbited the solar system with all the technical stuff, what
this basically means is next time, double-check your math before you fire up on all cylinders.
#3: Atlas Centaur 5
Between 1962 and 1964, three more Atlas Centaurs were launched which all became a roaring success!
But just when NASA thought they were on a winning streak in the ongoing space race,
their 5th attempt brought their celebrations to a screeching halt.
Although it was supposed to be just a test flight that will simulate a direct ascent to the moon,
it was still a make-or-break launch for the Centaur program. After all,
the program had already cost 600 million dollars in taxpayers' money, so it better work!
But just two seconds after the liftoff of AC-5,
both Atlas Booster engines cut off, causing the vehicle to settle back on the pad's launch base.
It resulted in this gigantic ball of fire,
which feels all the more painful when you take the price tag into consideration.
What an expensive fail!
#2: Columbia
Our Top Two Pick was actually near the homestretch, but in an
unfortunate incident, tragedy struck.
The space shuttle Columbia lifted off for its 28th mission on January 16,
2003. After finishing various experiments that required a microgravity environment,
Columbia was set to return to Earth two weeks later.
As Columbia was reentering the Earth's atmosphere,
it broke apart just minutes before it was to land at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
This resulted in the death of the seven astronauts on board.
It was found that a large piece of foam fell from the shuttle’s external tank
and breached the spacecraft wing.
In past missions, bits of foam had detached without serious mishap,
and at the time of the Columbia launch, NASA engineers did not think that the
foam carried enough momentum to cause significant damage.
What the foam!
#1: Challenger
Here we are. The space shuttle disaster that changed NASA forever.
The Challenger was supposed to fly into space on its 10th launch on January 28,
1986. Ten launches already? That was pretty impressive.
Sadly, there never was an eleventh.
As you can see here, the rocket exploded just 73 seconds after liftoff,
killing the seven crew members aboard.
The real drama, as it turned out, was behind the scenes. Even before the scheduled launch,
shuttle engineers raised safety concerns. The temperatures had dipped below freezing,
compromising the integrity of the seals on the solid rocket boosters.
After the incident, a Presidential commission was convened to investigate.
You know it’s THAT serious when Neil Armstrong is part of the panel.
The commission confirmed that the cold weather degraded the seal on the solid rock boosters
designed to help bring the shuttle into orbit.
But it was just the tip of the iceberg.
The investigation revealed deep-seated cultural problems within NASA, such as
failing to report all issues to the launch decision team.
Also, the shuttle’s proposed flight rate was unsustainable,
given the size of its workforce. Because of these findings,
NASA made technical changes to the shuttle and changed its workforce's culture.
And that's why a strong company culture is important, people!
Which one of these rocket launches did you find the most
terrifying? Let us know in the comments section below!
Don't miss out on the action! Join our fantastic tribe of fact-natics
by smashing that subscribe button, and hitting the notification bell!
To get first dibs on our latest life-changing, boredom-busting content!
And if you're craving for more misadventures,
check out our countdown of the 10 SCHOOL TRIPS That Went HORRIBLY Wrong!
‘Til then, stay alert fact-natics! And see you in the next video!