Jan 5 1978
From The Space Library
NASA reported a board of inquiry's findings on the Sept. 9, 1977, failure of an Atlas-Centaur launch vehicle destroyed 55sec into the flight. Launched from Kennedy Space Center, the vehicle had carried an INTELSAT IV-A. The board attributed failure to a rupture in the high pressure "omega joint" in the Atlas-stage gas-generator discharge line, caused by contamination during production. Technicians had tested joints on all completed vehicles, and all those at KSC had passed; a few in the factory that were corroded or questionable had been replaced. Changing the fabrication process should prevent further contamination, the report stated. (NASA Release 78-3)
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