Project Centaur Progress Report Jul-Dec 1964 Convair-NASA; AC-4 Launch; AT-CR-362

more at http://quickfound.net/

July to December 1964 contractor's progress report on development of the Centaur liquid hydrogen fueled upper stage. Includes work on Centaur systems at NASA Lewis Research Center, stage separation pyrotechnics, and status of the Atlas-Centaur stages.

As of 2014, there had been 197 Centaur launches, 181 of them successful.

Originally a public domain film, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.

The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centaur_(rocket_stage)

Wikipedia license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Centaur is a rocket stage designed for use as the upper stage of space launch vehicles. Centaur boosts its satellite payload to geosynchronous orbit or, in the case of an interplanetary space probe, to or near to escape velocity. Centaur was the world's first high-energy upper stage, burning liquid hydrogen (LH2) and liquid oxygen (LOX), and has enabled the launch of some of NASA's most important scientific missions over its 50 year history.

Centaur was the brainchild of Karel J. "Charlie" Bossart (the man behind the Atlas ICBM) and Dr. Krafft A. Ehricke, both Convair employees. Their design was essentially a smaller version of the Atlas, with its concept of using lightweight "stainless steel balloon" tanks whose structural rigidity was provided solely by the pressure of the propellants within. To keep the tanks from collapsing prior to propellant loading, they were either kept in "stretch" or pressurized with nitrogen gas.

Centaur uses a common double-bulkhead to separate the LOX and LH2 tanks. The two stainless steel skins are separated by a 0.25 inch (6.4 mm) layer of fiberglass honeycomb. The extreme cold of the LH2 on one side creates a vacuum within the fiberglass layer, giving the bulkhead a low thermal conductivity, and thus preventing heat transfer from the relatively warm LOX to the super cold LH2. It is powered by one or two RL10 rocket engines (SEC and DEC variants respectively)...

The first Atlas-Centaur launch, which occurred in 1962 ended in failure after 54 seconds. It was determined that Centaur's insulation had sheered off in flight, allowing liquid hydrogen to vaporize. This caused the hydrogen tank to burst, destroying the vehicle. Following extensive redesigns, the next launch in late 1963 was successful.

On May 30, 1966, an Atlas-Centaur boosted the first Surveyor lander towards the Moon. The soft landing of Surveyor 1 in the Ocean of Storms was NASA's first landing on any extraterrestrial body, and the world's first controlled landing on the Moon...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas-Centaur

The Atlas-Centaur was an American expendable launch system derived from the SM-65 Atlas D missile. Launches were conducted from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida...

Convair developed a specially-enhanced version of the Atlas D vehicle for mating with Centaur stages; the Atlas's engines were upgraded and the structure reinforced for the large upper stage, along with elongated fuel tanks. The first Atlas-Centaur, Vehicle F-1, arrived at Cape Canaveral in February 1961 and was erected at the newly completed LC-36A, a pad built specifically for A/C flights. However, technical problems and other delays caused it to sit there for 18 months. The mission at last got under way on 8 May 1962. Everything went without incident until about T+53 seconds when the Centaur stage ruptured and disintegrated, taking the Atlas with it in a matter of seconds...

More than a year later, the second test took place... The redesigned Centaur stage functioned without any problems...

Originally designed and built by Convair Division of General Dynamics in San Diego, California, production of Atlas Centaurs at Convair ended in 1995 but was resumed at Lockheed-Martin in Colorado. The list of Atlas Centaur ID numbers began with AC-1 launched on 8 May 1962 and ended with the last Atlas III (Centaur), AC-206, launched on 3 February 2005... by which time they had been superseded by Atlas Vs with a new first stage powered by a much more powerful Russian RD-180 engine. (Atlas Vs are not generally referred to as "Atlas Centaurs" and do not share the AC- serial numbers of the original Atlas Centaurs that had the Rocketdyne-powered first stages.)...