Mariner 1 (nonfiction)
Mariner 1 was the first spacecraft of the American Mariner program, designed for a planetary flyby of Venus. It cost $18.5 million in 1962. It was launched aboard an Atlas-Agena rocket on July 22, 1962. Shortly after takeoff the rocket responded improperly to commands from the guidance systems on the ground, setting the stage for an apparent software-related guidance system failure.[1] With the craft effectively uncontrolled, a range safety officer ordered its destructive abort 294.5 seconds after launch.[2]
According to NASA's current account for the public:
The booster had performed satisfactorily until an unscheduled yaw-lift (northeast) maneuver was detected by the range safety officer. Faulty application of the guidance commands made steering impossible and were directing the spacecraft towards a crash, possibly in the North Atlantic shipping lanes or in an inhabited area. The destruct command was sent 6 seconds before separation, after which the launch vehicle could not have been destroyed. The radio transponder continued to transmit signals for 64 seconds after the destruct command had been sent.
The role of software error in the launch failure remains somewhat mysterious in nature, shrouded in the ambiguities and conflicts among (and in some accounts, even within) the various accounts, official and otherwise. The probe's mission was accomplished by Mariner 2 which launched 5 weeks later.
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External links:
- Mariner 1 @ Wikipedia