page_title: GPS IIR-1
section_title: Launch
hierarchical_section_title: GPS IIR-1 / Launch
caption_attribution_description: English: On Launch Pad 17-B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., workers prepare a Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) to be lifted up the mobile service tower and attached to the Boeing Delta II launch vehicle for launch of the Deep Impact spacecraft. A NASA Discovery mission, Deep Impact will probe beneath the surface of Comet Tempel 1 on July 4, 2005, when the comet is 83 million miles from Earth, and reveal the secrets of its interior. After releasing a 3- by 3-foot projectile to crash onto the surface, Deep Impact’s flyby spacecraft will collect pictures and data of how the crater forms, measuring the crater’s depth and diameter, as well as the composition of the interior of the crater and any material thrown out, and determining the changes in natural outgassing produced by the impact. It will send the data back to Earth through the antennas of the Deep Space Network. Deep Impact project management is handled by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The spacecraft is scheduled to launch Dec. 30, 2004. Deutsch: Einer von neun "GEM 40" Feststoffbooster wird an eine Delta II-Rakete montiert. Diese Rakete startete am 12. Januar 2005 die Raumsonde Deep Impact zum Kometen Tempel 1.
context_page_description: GPS IIR-1 or GPS SVN-42 was the first Block IIR GPS satellite to be launched. It was to have been operated as part of the United States Air Force Global Positioning System. It was launched on January 17, 1997, and was destroyed 13 seconds into its flight due to a malfunction of the Delta II rocket that was carrying it. It was estimated to have cost US$40 million, with its carrier rocket costing $55 million. The satellite that was used for the IIR-1 mission was the second production IIR satellite, SVN-42.
context_section_description: GPS IIR-1 was launched on a Delta II 7925-9.5 rocket, serial number D241, from Launch Complex 17A at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The launch occurred at 16:28:01 GMT (11:28 local time), on January 17, 1997. Thirteen seconds later, the rocket's flight termination system was activated by its onboard computer. This detonated explosive charges aboard the rocket, causing it to explode. At the time of explosion, the rocket was 1,600 feet (490 m) above the launch complex. It was the lowest-altitude launch failure at Cape Canaveral since Atlas-Centaur AC-5 in 1965 and only the third total loss of a Delta in the previous two decades.
  An investigation determined that the failure was caused by a crack in the casing of the number 2 GEM-40 solid rocket motor, which started to form at T+6 seconds and grew from there. At T+12 seconds, the SRB casing ruptured and debris struck the number 8 SRB next to it, causing that motor to fail as well. One second later, the range safety destruct charges automatically activated, causing the rocket to auto-terminate, which led to the self-destruction of the first stage and the detonation of the remaining SRBs. The upper stages were blasted free. At T+21 seconds, the Range Safety Officer sent a manual destruct command to terminate the upper stages for safety purposes, resulting in their destruction. The GPS satellite and payload shroud survived intact until impacting the ground. It could not be determined with certainty what had tripped the destruct system on the first stage; possible explanations including a lanyard being pulled, a shock wave from the rupture of the number 2 SRB, or heat generated by the event.
  The booster had been damaged by pressure from a support in a new transportation system that had recently been introduced. Following the failure, the system was revised, and ultrasound inspections of boosters on future flights were introduced.
caption: A Delta II solid rocket motor
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