CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- An Atlas 1 rocket tumbled out of control after one of two Centaur second-stage engines failed to ignite, destroying a cable television satellite in a $150 million failure for General Dynamics' commercial-launch business.
'We did not get ignition on both Centaur engines, I'm sorry to report,' said a launch commentator about four and a half minutes after liftoff. 'The vehicle is tumbling... we have experienced a failure of the AC-71 Galaxy 1R (mission).'
It was the second catastrophic failure in seven flights for General Dynamics Space Systems Division of San Diego and what impact the disaster might have on the company's commercial space program was not immediately clear. But the launcher undoubtedly will be grounded until the cause is determined.
Running two days late because of stormy weather, the silver-and- white, 138-foot-tall Atlas 1 rocket thundered to life at 6:41 p.m. EDT and slowly climbed away from pad 36B at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
The early moments of the flight appeared normal as the slender rocket arced east over the Atlantic Ocean, putting on a spectacular evening skyshow for area residents and tourists.
The Atlas first stage burned out and was jettisoned on schedule 275 seconds after launch.
But only one of the two second-stage engines then fired, producing an unbalanced thrust that sent the rocket tumbling out of control.
It was not immediately known what might have caused the failure -- the first for an Atlas since the April 18, 1991, destruction of a $100 million direct broadcast television relay satellite owned by Japan Broadcasting Corp.
That failure was traced to debris in a fuel line that prevented one of the Centaur engines from igniting. The rocket then tumbled out of control and was blown up by radio command from Air Force safety officers.
It was not immediately clear what caused Saturday's rocket failure.
Lost along with the Atlas 1 was the Galaxy 1R cable television relay station, a powerful satellite built by Hughes Aircraft Co. of El Segundo, Calif., and owned by subsidiary Hughes Communications Inc.
Hughes officials refused to say what the company paid for the satellite, the rocket or insurance coverage, but placed the total value of the mission at more than $150 million.
Saturday's flight marked only the sixth commercial launch of an Atlas rocket in 76 flights of the workhorse booster.
Over the most recent 20 launches dating back to May 23, 1981, the rocket had a success rate of about 85 percent, But that figure includes the loss of a rocket launched by NASA in March 1989 that was destroyed by lightning.
Regardless of what caused Saturday's failure, the loss marked a major setback for General Dynamics, which is trying to overtake the Euorpean consortium Arianespace for control of the world's commercial launch market.
It also marked a major setback for Hughes Communications Inc.
With the loss of Galaxy 1R, the company will be forced to press a spare satellite into service next year to carry Home Box Office, Cinemax, Turner Network Television and other major cable channels that are currently distributed by the Galaxy 1 satellite.
Along with carrying an undisclosed amount of insurance, Hughes maintains two spare satellites in orbit, a C-band relay station and a KU-band spacecraft, to take over in case of launch failures.
When Galaxy 1 is retired late next year, it will be replaced by an orbital spare, Galaxy 6, to prevent any interruption in service.
At that point, only four satellites will be responsible for carrying the bulk of the nation's cable traffic: Galaxy 5 and 6; and GE Americom's Satcom C-3 and C-4.
Prior to the Challenger disaster, unmanned rockets were being phased out in the United States in favor of NASA's manned space shuttles.
But after the 1986 disaster, and the subsequent grounding of dozens of high-priority military satellites, the Pentagon ordered whole fleets of unmanned rockets to guarantee independent access to orbit regardless of the status of NASA's delay-prone shuttle.
At the same time, the Reagan administration banned commercial satellites from the shuttle to encourage development of a private-sector launch industry to compete with Arianespace.
McDonnell Douglas Space Systems Co. of Huntington Beach, Calif., now holds contracts and options valued at $669 million to build 20 upgraded Delta 2 rockets to launch military navigation satellites. The contract later was expanded to 25 rockets, which also are marketed commercially.
The Air Force also ordered some 49 shuttle-class Titan 4 rockets from Martin Marietta Astronautics Group of Denver under contracts valued at some $7.1 billion. Slightly less-powerful Titan 3 launchers are marketed commercially.
In 1987, General Dynamics announced plans to build 18 Atlas-Centaurs on a commercial basis. With a commitment from the Navy to buy at least seven rockets to launch military communications satellite, General Dynamics ultimately decided to build some 60 launch vehicles.
Prior to Saturday's launch, the company held 34 commercial launch contracts beyond the Galaxy 1R launch.
The company's first commercial launch came in July 1990, when an Atlas-Centaur carried a NASA science satellite into orbit. The second commercial mission ended in failure April 18, 1990. Two subsequent commercial flights were successful, along with a military mission.
Four versions of the rocket currently are available, depending on payload weight and orbital requirements. Satellites weighing between 5, 000 and 8,000 pounds can be lofted into the high orbits required by commercial communications satellites.
