Abstract After its mishap in 1985, the Titan 34D remained grounded until 18 April 1986 when one lifted off carrying the final KH-9 film-return reconnaissance satellite. Unfortunately, at T + 8 seconds it exploded at an altitude of 800 feet. The fragmental debris and burning propellant caused severe damage to SLC-4E and the nearby facilities. The explosion also created a toxic cloud that rose to an altitude of 8,000 feet before being blown out to sea.1 Each strap-on of a Titan 34D comprised five full segments and a half segment, a forward enclosure and an aft enclosure. Over the years, some 940 segments of this kind had been used successfully. No Titan had been lost so catastrophically in its 30-year history.2 The preliminary report on 9 June ruled out an O-ring problem like the one that had caused the loss of Challenger several months previously, and offered a number of failure modes involving ‘debonding’ in one of the solid rocket motors, but insufficient material was recovered to reach a definitive conclusion.3 An examination of other segments from the same batch (which had been made five years earlier, and held in storage) showed that the flaw was not age related.4 A number of motor segments were cut into 2-foot-high slices and dissected into pie shapes for inspection. The flaws discovered in these segments strongly implied that a debonding of the rubber insulation had allowed the hot gas in the motor to make contact with the steel casing, weakening it sufficiently for the 700-psi pressure to open a hole 7 inches in diameter, which caused the explosion.5,6 The Air Force initiated an intensive recovery that included improving the handling procedures for the solid motors, inspecting their segments using non-destructive methods, and adding instrumentation to monitor their operation.7,8


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    Titel :

    Back to expendables


    Beteiligte:


    Erscheinungsdatum :

    2005-01-01


    Format / Umfang :

    23 pages




    Medientyp :

    Aufsatz/Kapitel (Buch)


    Format :

    Elektronische Ressource


    Sprache :

    Englisch




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