1963-047A
The second Centaur mission, using Centaur vehicle 2B, was an orbital attempt. The Centaur carried an instrumentation ring on the nose of the Centaur tank. The launch was around 1900 UT on 1963 Nov 27 from Complex 36A at Cape Canaveral. The Atlas burned for around 4 minutes and fell away; the Centaur's RL10 engines ignited on time for its single burn, and entered a 544 x 1699 km x 30.3 deg orbit. This marked the first successful use of a hydrogen-oxygen rocket. After orbital insertion, venting of excess hydrogen caused the stage to tumble, reaching 48 revs per minute within an hour after launch. Around 2230 UT the tumbling caused insulation blankets and nose fairing on the Centaur to be thrown off, resulting in six large debris objects and several smaller ones being tracked.
| AC-2 | |||
| Date | Time | Event | Orbit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1963 Nov 27 | 1903:23 | Launch by AC-2 | CC LC36A |
| 1905:52 | T+2:29 BECO | ||
| 1905:53 | T+2:30 Booster sep | ||
| 1907:11 | T+3:48 SECO | ||
| 1907:16 | T+3:53 VECO | ||
| 1907:16? | T+3:53 Atlas sep 190 km 3.31 km/s | ||
| 1907:26 | T+4:03 Centaur MES, 6:20 | ||
| 1913:46 | T+10:23 Centaur MECO | ||
| Centaur verniers, 12s | |||
| 1913:58 | Centaur VECO | ||
| 2030? | Power failed | ||
| Stage tumbling | |||
| 2230 | Insulation blankets separate | ||
| 2230 | Nose fairing separates | ||
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