Launch Mishaps - Early Rocket Failures at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

An ORIGINAL ASM Production. Most footage provided by launch team members who were there. This documents some earlier space program failures from 1950 to 1998. During that period there were over 3400 launches from the 42 launch pads at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station of which approximately 450 were failures. Some international failures also shown but documentation was poor. There were an estimated 250 non-U.S. failures during the period, mostly Russian.

(Please excuse noise left by YouTube's Music Erase Tool after removing copyrighted music.)

U.S. Failures shown...
U.S.: Snark, Jupiter, Atlas 4a, Vanguard, Thor, Mercury Redstone, Polaris, Titan 1, Atlas 9b, Atlas ABLE 9c (largest explosion on the cape), Atlas 8e, Atlas Centaur F-1, Atlas Centaur 5, Delta II shown from cape and from Jetty Park, Titan Centaur 9.

International Failures: Chinese Long March, Russian Nedelin Catastrophe (R-16 ICBM which killed Chief Field Marshall Nedelin), Russian Cosmos booster, Russian Vostock.

An original 2007 production by Murphy Wardman, a Sr. Engineering Specialist with General Dynamics / Lockheed Martin from 1958 to 1995. Murphy is currently retired and for many years has been a valued contributor of significant time and expertise to the American Space Museum and the U.S. Space Walk of Fame. We interviewed Murphy twice...
2011    • Murphy Wardman (2011): Atlas-Centaur ...  
2020    • Murphy Wardman (2020): 37 Year Atlas-...  

Sorry, but much of the footage is low quality due to the original source or copy available at the time the DVD was produced. In many cases this may be the best or only copy available. ** PLEASE SEE additional source quality info below. **

Original SOURCE: DVD produced by Murphy Wardman for U.S. Space Walk of Fame Foundation
COPYRIGHT 2007, 2020 by U.S. Space Walk of Fame Foundation Inc. DBA American Space Museum (formerly U.S. Space Walk of Fame Museum) located in Titusville, Florida.

Historical information compiled by Murphy Wardman.
EDITED By: Tracie Flemming
NARRATED By: Ken Flemming.
Prepared for YouTube by Bruce L. Jacobs

We appreciate the feedback on the original version. We agree the music (no longer included) WAS too loud at times and the video resolution is low. The video was made many many years ago by a museum VOLUNTEER who worked at the Cape for years and probably helped launch a few of those. He only had very simple video equipment to work with. It was intended for LOCAL USE at the museum and was placed on DVD. The intention was to provide historical perspective along with the raw footage. At the time, before a YouTube channel was a big thing, he had no idea it would be placed online or seen by so many people. He probably spent hundreds of hours on the project. He's now in his '90s and proud that it's our museum's number one video. He should be proud!

Years later, when we decided it should be placed on YouTube, the only source we had was a 480p DVD. We simply added intro and exit slides.

=== *** UPDATE: 2024-07-19...

This original 2020 upload had the original copyrighted music which prevented us from monetizing our most popular video. We also received many complaints about the volume being to loud. Some folks DID like it. Thanks for everyone's feedback (good and bad) about the music.

On 7/19/24 we used YouTube's NEW AI based online tool to remove the copyrighted background music but leave the voice narration on this ALREADY UPLOADED video. The narration adds to the educational and general interest value.

*** The negative is the hissing noise left in place of the music. Sorry, we have no control over that.

This finally allows us to monetize OUR MOST POPULAR video without re-uploading and changing the link. We get very little income from YouTube but every little bit helps when you're a non-profit. Thanks again for everyone's feedback.