THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 24, 1995 TAG: 9510240301
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: KAREN JOLLY DAVIS, STAFF REPORT
DATELINE: WALLOPS ISLAND LENGTH: Long : 156 lines
Twenty million dollars blew up over the Atlantic Monday.
The Conestoga rocket - anxiously awaited by satellite builders and experimenters as a cheap way to get into space - self-destructed about 45 seconds after liftoff.
``We have vehicle failure,'' announced NASA spokesman Keith Koehler said in a flat tone of voice as burning chunks of the rocket fell apart like spent fireworks.
Elation turned to shock as thousands of spectators who had flocked to Accomack County's seaside to watch the launch realized what had happened.
``Is there going to be another one?'' cried one small girl.
Flaming rocket pieces slowly corkscrewed earthward, leaving smoke trails eerily reminiscent of the Challenger explosion. The rocket pieces fell into the water about 14 miles from Wallops, and there were no reports of injury or property damage.
In the mission control center, technicians watched their monitors in shocked silence.
``You can imagine the feelings of people who had put so much work into it,'' said Mike Bryant, spokesman for EER Systems Inc., the Maryland-based company that built the rocket.
The 52-foot Conestoga was carrying 14 scientific experiments sponsored by NASA, various universities and private companies. They ranged from cancer research to the effects of extreme cold temperatures on commercial high-capacity heaters.
The Conestoga was the first commercial rocket launched from Wallops Flight Facility and the largest ever to take off from there. NASA and commercial firms invested as much as $73 million developing the rocket and launch tower under two different programs, COMET and METEOR.
EER officials said this mission - the rocket and support services - cost $20 million. They didn't know yet why it failed.
``We really don't know what happened,'' Jim Hengle, vice president of EER's space systems group, said at a news conference Monday night. ``I know nothing. I wish I had some information to impart to you.''
Hengle said EER, NASA and the Department of Transportation will study flight data over the next week to see what activated the rocket's self-destruct mechanisms. He speculated that the cause was a malfunctioning booster.
EER's investment in the rocket won't be a total loss. The company's flight license from Department of Transportation required it to insure the vehicle, Hengle said. He said EER will continue to work on getting into space.
``Aerospace products and service are in EER's blood,'' he said.
Monday's countdown was delayed for several minutes after a sensor warned engineers of potential problems in the hydraulic system. But the launch - at first - looked good. Four Castor IV boosters ignited at 6:04 p.m. and burned with red, then bright white light. As the Conestoga lifted slowly from the ground, people cheered and yelled, ``Go! Go!''
Suddenly, nine seconds before separation of the first-stage motors and about 10 miles up, the rocket broke into pieces. Hengle said two separate destruct mechanisms activated to break the rocket into pieces.
First, the Conestoga had on-board systems to rip open the rocket motors if internal sensors determined that the flight was in trouble. Almost simultaneously, the NASA Wallops range safety officer, watching telemetry readings and a video monitor, pressed a button to activate a separate destruct system.
Then it was over. Long after the rocket's metal pieces hit the water, a tattered parachute - once the recovery module's guarantee of a safe re-entry - fluttered uselessly in the air. Coast Guard officials in Ocean City, Md., said people from Philadelphia to North Carolina reported seeing the launch.
Hengle said there was no way to predict the failure. And EER isn't the only frustrated rocket builder. The last three American small-rocket launches, sponsored by commercial launchers like Orbital Sciences Corp and Lockheed Martin Corp., have failed as well.
``It all happens in the air,'' Hengle about the Conestoga, which was on its first flight. ``Unfortunately, it was not its day.''
Hengle said the Coast Guard had searched briefly for pieces of the Conestoga, and would return this morning to look for anything that could be recovered. Most would sink, Hengle predicted, and he had little hope for recovering any of the 14 costly experiments that were the rocket's payload.
Monday's disaster was the last of six attempts to get the Conestoga off the ground. One try was scuttled by high winds in the upper atmosphere. And NASA shuttle flights from Florida, which use some of the same space tracking stations, caused conflicts that pushed EER's take-off from one date to another.
The most frustrating nonlaunch happened on Aug. 13, when thousands of rocket fans from Hampton Roads crossed the bridge to watch the blast-off. But with 90 seconds left in the countdown, EER aborted the mission.
Conestoga had lost hydraulic pressure in two of the rocket's seven steering nozzles. The Castor IV rocket motors, where the trouble focused, were built by Thiokol Corporation and had a long history of successful space flights. Thiokol manufactures the shuttles' boosters, including the ones with O-ring problems that caused the Challenger disaster.
In recent months Thiokol motors have had a string of problems, say NASA officials.
Two days after the aborted Conestoga mission, Lockheed Martin launched a rocket with a Thiokol motor from Vandenberg Air Force Base. It went out of control and had to be destroyed by range safety experts. Maxus, a European rocket using Thiokol engines, overheated and was destroyed.
Koreasat, a satellite sponsored by the South Korean government, didn't reach its best orbit, because of a Thiokol rocket motor failure. It is expected to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere 1.5 years sooner than planned.
Before Monday's failure, Hengle had spoken well of Thiokol. He said company engineers came to examine the Conestoga after the aborted Aug. 13 launch and helped solve the steering nozzle problem.
``They stood behind their product,'' said Hengle. MEMO: THE LOST EXPERIEMENTS
If Conestoga had reached orbit, eight of the 14 experiments it
carried - packed into a container called a ``service module'' - would
have stayed in space for at least two years and transmitted information
to an EER ground station in Northern Virginia.
Another six experiments, in a section joined to but separate from the
service module, would have parachuted into the Atlantic 85 miles off the
Eastern Shore. A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter would then have retrieved
the so-called ``recovery module'' in a cage basket and returned it to
scientists and engineers at NASA Wallops.
Among the experiments apparently lost to the sea Monday:
Biotechnology and crystal growth experiments, designed by the
University of Alabama at Birmingham. Purpose: drug research and
improved space-age materials.
Plant growth in space, designed by the University of Colorado.
Purpose: improved life support systems for space travel and better
pharmaceuticals.
Behavior of materials in space: separate experiments designed by
Maxwell Laboratories and Clemson and Texas A&M universities. Purpose:
to improve design of future spacecraft.
Various scientific experiments of a ``proprietary'' nature, designed
by Motorola Inc. Purpose: unknown.
[For a related story, see page A1 for this date.]
ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
STEVE HELBER
Associated Press
The Conestoga rocket that exploded was carrying 14 scientific
experiments.
[Color Photos]
The launch proceeds as planned just after 6 p.m.
A puff of flame can be seen as the explosion begins.
Amid spirals of smoke, the rocket begins to break apart.
A portion of the rocket plummetse toward the earth.
Still firing, a booster corkscrews out of control.
VP Graphic
[For a copy of the graphic, see microfilm for tis date.]
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Conestoga was the first commercial Wallops Island launch; it was
to bring a scientific load into orbit. NASA and commercial firms
invested as much as $73 million developing the rocket and launch
tower.
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT EXPLOSION ROCKET by CNB