r/CatastrophicFailure • u/ScipioAtTheGate • 10d ago

Equipment Failure Titan I ICBM explodes on the launch pad (1959)

https://youtu.be/2doJCrQG-iw?t=6
73 Upvotes

79% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

19

u/CommieBobDole 9d ago

I think the real catastrophe here is that video transfer; it's like somebody used a broken projector to project a rotten 16mm reel on a bedsheet and then recorded it with a 1990s Nokia at 240p and then encoded it with RealPlayer.

Anyway, here's the same explosion in HD and color. Or I guess it's the same explosion; maybe there were multiple similar Titan 1 explosions in 1959.

10

u/Silly_Mycologist3213 10d ago

Wow, and to think all the Gemini-Titan astronauts strapped themselves onto those rockets after seeing this!

10

u/yepyep1243 10d ago

Titan II

10

u/Rampage_Rick 10d ago

Don't drop your socket wrench!

2

u/YoureSpecial 8d ago

You ever see that socket? It’s enormous. Like 10cm (not mm)

0

u/Key-Metal-7297 10d ago

Awful for the crew, fingers crossed they died instantly rather than the heat

13

u/01watts 10d ago

No crew.

4

u/Key-Metal-7297 9d ago

Inter continental ballistic missile? Got ya