Centaur rocket blown up

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33775, 22 February 1975, Page 1

Centaur rocket blown up

(New Zealand Press Association—Copyright)

CAPE CANAVERAL, February 21. United States Space Agency officials have said that they blew up an Atlas Centaur rocket carrying the Intelsat 4 satellite when the rocket tumbled out of control soon after launching.

The self-destruct actionl sent the rocket and satellite} into the Atlantic Ocean ini pieces last night and put an| end to the s3om mission. Witnesses as far away asi Miami reported seeing a ■ huge fire-ball followed by “twinkling stars” — possibly; burning bits of the wreckage] — after the destruction. i Mr Henry Slone, the Atlas; Centaur project manager, • said the rocket appeared to! i tumble out of control 2min; 120 sec after an apparently • ! perfect lift-off from Cape I Canaveral. The failure ocicurred soon after the!

(engines cut off in the first . stage of the rocket. I “We are very mystified," jhe said. It would be a few weeks before scientists determined why the rocket failed. The destruction of the I rocket was done as a safety measure. Space Agency officials .blamed a failure in the >; rocket’s second stage for th< | mission's failure. Engineers i| and technicians are in- , specting tape-recorded signi als from both vehicles tc i: determine exactly what hapripened. >j Unlike most Intelstat -launches, this one was unin- • Isured.