PIONEER P-30 Launch - Atlas-Able [48 fps, HD] 1960/09/25, Cape Canaveral, LC-12

Launch of Pioneer P-30 on an Atlas-Able on 1960/09/25. Split screen view from two high frame rate camera sequences (48 fps).

Original footage from SDASM:    • HACL 02554 Atlas-Able 80D 9/25/1960 P...   and    • HACL 02553 Atlas-Able 80D 9/25/1960 P...  
Sound is from a distant recording of an Atlas rocket launch.

Research, editing and color correction by RetroSpace HD.

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Pioneer P-30 (also known as Atlas-Able 5A, or Pioneer Y) was intended to be a lunar orbiter probe, but the mission failed shortly after launch on September 25, 1960. The objectives were to place a highly instrumented probe in lunar orbit, to investigate the environment between the Earth and Moon, and to develop technology for controlling and maneuvering spacecraft from Earth. It was equipped to estimate the Moon's mass and topography of the poles, record the distribution and velocity of micrometeorites, and study radiation, magnetic fields, and low frequency electromagnetic waves in space. A mid-course propulsion system and injection rocket would have been the first United States self-contained propulsion system capable of operation many months after launch at great distances from Earth and the first U.S. tests of maneuvering a satellite in space.

The spacecraft was launched on Atlas 80D coupled to Thor-Able upper stages including a Hercules ABL solid-propellant third stage.
While P-3 had used a recycled booster from the Mercury program, which had a number of custom modifications, P-30's launch vehicle (Atlas 80D) was a standard-configuration Atlas D ICBM with the exception of thicker skin to support the additional weight of the upper stages.

Atlas BECO was performed at T+250 seconds and SECO at T+275 seconds. Vernier solo mode was not planned for this launch due to the direct ascent trajectory and VECO was to take place at T+280 seconds, however, a malfunction of a timer relay prevented this from happening and the verniers continued operating until propellant depletion.

At an altitude of about 370 km (230 mi), the first stage separated from the second stage. The Able second stage ignited and started up properly, however, thrust quickly decayed and then dropped to zero.
The second stage malfunction was attributed to a loss of pressure in the propellant feed system, starving the engine of oxidizer. Although the mission was a failure, ground controllers fired Able VA's onboard liquid propellant hydrazine rocket engine — the first time that an onboard motor was fired on a space vehicle.

The vehicle was unable to achieve Earth orbit, re-entered, and was believed to have come down somewhere in the Indian Ocean. Signals were returned by the payload for 17 minutes after launch.

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#nasa #pioneer #atlas