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Tuesday, May 19th, is the 50th Aniversary of the fourth Little Joe-II flight, mission A-003. There is a Facebook post by Launch Magazine, with a number of comments:
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=789798691134293&id=625890014191829
Below are three photos from that post:
For those interested in more info, photos, and data, here is a link to the main page of the Little Joe-II data on my website:
https://georgesrockets.com/GRP/Scale/DATA/LJoeMain.htm
A-003 was.... technnically a failure because the rocket went out of control and broke up without reaching the planned abort parameters..... but in a REAL in flight emergency and break-up. it acted perfectly and was an incredible success. AFAIK, the fast roll was never accounted for in design, so it surprised me that the spinning did not cause the recovery system to get tangled up and fail. The rocket took off using a cluster of three Algol motors, and was supposed to ignite three more after those burned out (never had the chance)
Here is what Tom Beach wrote about A-003:
[video=youtube;AqeJzItldSQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqeJzItldSQ[/video]
First of two pages of photos: https://georgesrockets.com/GRP/Scale/DATA/JoePhotos/JoePhotos.html
The following are all from A-003:
Drawing at 1/100 scale:
The fifth and final Little Joe-II mission was A-004, January 20, 1966. So, about 8 months away from the 50th anniversary of that flight.
- George Gassaway
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=789798691134293&id=625890014191829
Below are three photos from that post:
For those interested in more info, photos, and data, here is a link to the main page of the Little Joe-II data on my website:
https://georgesrockets.com/GRP/Scale/DATA/LJoeMain.htm
A-003 was.... technnically a failure because the rocket went out of control and broke up without reaching the planned abort parameters..... but in a REAL in flight emergency and break-up. it acted perfectly and was an incredible success. AFAIK, the fast roll was never accounted for in design, so it surprised me that the spinning did not cause the recovery system to get tangled up and fail. The rocket took off using a cluster of three Algol motors, and was supposed to ignite three more after those burned out (never had the chance)
Here is what Tom Beach wrote about A-003:
-003: The objective of this mission was a high-altitude (about 20 miles) abort, but a control system failure prevented this. At launch, fin 4 locked over to maximum deflection. The other fins and the RCS system tried to compensate, but were unsuccessful, and the roll rate of the vehicle increased until centrifugal forces resulted in disintegration of the Little Joe II at 12,400 feet. The LES sensed the failure and initiated an emergency abort, successfully pulling the BP-22 capsule away for a safe recovery, a consolation prize for the Apollo engineers. Upon impact in the desert, the unignited upper stage Algol motors were observed to ignite violently, throwing burning and unburned propellant within a radius of several hundred feet. Nice prang.
[video=youtube;AqeJzItldSQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqeJzItldSQ[/video]
First of two pages of photos: https://georgesrockets.com/GRP/Scale/DATA/JoePhotos/JoePhotos.html
The following are all from A-003:
Drawing at 1/100 scale:
The fifth and final Little Joe-II mission was A-004, January 20, 1966. So, about 8 months away from the 50th anniversary of that flight.
- George Gassaway