Department of the Air Force Report, 1996

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vehicle was destroyed by the RSO at 152 seconds. Missile impacted about 60
miles downrange.
12.
120, 28 Feb 58, Response Mode 4, Flight Phase 1: Failure of fuel line caused
premature main engine shutdown at 109.7 seconds.
13.
121, 19 Apr 58, Response Mode 1, Flight Phase 1: Failure of fuel system resulted in
loss of thrust shortly after liftoff. Missile fell back on pad after reaching an
altitude of about 4 feet.
14.
116 (Able I), 23 Apr 58, Response Mode 4, Flight Phase 1: A turbopump failure at
146.2 seconds resulted in main-engine shutdown and an explosion.
18.
123, 11 July 58, Response Mode 4, Flight Phase 1: Although the flight was,
regarded as a success, the main· engine failed to respond to the guidance
shutdown command due to a wiring failure. When the main engine was shut
down 0.43 seconds later by a backup command, the vernier engines also shut
down. A large overshoot resulted from the late shutdown.
20.
126, 26 July 58, Response Mode 4, Flight Phase 1: An inadvertent closing of the
main-engine- liquid-oxygen valve terminated thrust at 58.4 seconds.
Missile
components were recovered about 5 miles downrange.
22.
127 (Able I), 17 Aug 58, Response Mode 4, Flight Phase 1: A turbopump failure
led to main engine shutdown at about 74 seconds. An explosion followed with
impact about 10 miles downrange.
23.
130 (Pioneer I), 11 Oct 58, Response Mode NA, Flight Phase 2 & 5: Cow upper-
stage thrust reduced the planned orbital altitude from 250,000 nm to 90,000 nm.
24.
138, 5 Nov 58, Response Mode 5, Flight Phase 1: Shortly after liftoff the missile
began drifting uprange and to the left, reaching a maximum uprange drift of 150
feet. It continued diverging to the left of the nominal flight path until a pitch-gyro
failure caused an excessive pitch down.
Shortly thereafter at 34.6 seconds,
command destruct occurred.
25.
129 (Able I), 8 Nov 58, Response Mode 4, Flight Phase 3: After a normal boost
phase, the third-stage (Allegheny Ballistic X-248-A3) solid-propellant motor failed
to ignite.
26.
140, 26 Nov 58, Response Mode 5, Flight Phase 1: Erratic performance of the
guidance-system inverter at 111.4 seconds resulted in erroneous accelerometer
scale factors and a 37 mile overshoot of target. Flight was regarded as a success.
27.
145, 5 Dec 58, Response Mode 4, Flight Phase 1: Although the flight was
considered successful, below-normal thrust throughout flight resulted in fuel
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RTI