Sphinx (satellite)
{{Short description|American test satellite}}
{{Use American English|date=March 2014}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2014}}
{{Infobox spaceflight
| name = Sphinx
| image = Sphinx satellite.jpg
| image_caption = The Sphinx satellite in 1972
| manufacturer = NASA
| dry_mass = 113 kg{{Cite web |title=SPHINX A, B, C |url=https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/sphinx.htm |access-date=2025-04-23 |website=Gunter's Space Page |language=en}}
| spacecraft_type = Satellite
| launch_date = February 11, 1974
| crew_size = 0
| launch_rocket = Titan IIIE Centaur
| launch_site = Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 41
| disposal_type =
| destroyed = T+748 seconds{{cite book |last1=Dawson |first1=Virginia |url=https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4230.pdf |title=Taming Liquid Hydrogen: The Centaur Upper Stage Rocket 1958-2002 |last2=Bowles |first2=Mark |publisher=National Aeronautics and Space Administration |year=2004}}
}}
SPHINX (short for Space Plasma High Voltage Interaction Experiment) was a test satellite developed by NASA as the payload for the first Titan IIIE Centaur rocket. It was launched on February 11, 1974 alongside the Viking Dynamic Simulator (VDS), a dummy model of the Viking space probe that would eventually be sent to Mars.
Background
The satellite was designed to test high voltage electrical components and their interaction with plasma in the vacumn of space. The satellite was spin stabilized, and was to be ejected from the VDS before completing its data readings.{{Cite web |title=NASA - NSSDCA - Spacecraft - Details |url=https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=SPHINX |access-date=2017-02-14 |website=nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov}}
Launch and destruction
{{Further|Titan IIIE#Flights}}
File:First Titan-Centaur Launch Test - GPN-2003-00040.jpg
The satellite was launched on the original test flight of the Titan IIIE-Centaur rocket, and was intended to be deployed after the third burn of the second stage Centaur engine with the payload in orbit. However, the Centaur engine failed to ignite and the ship began to rapidly fall. At this point, the range safety officer ordered the destruction of the rocket, destroying the satellite and VDS with it.
Two additional satellites named Sphinx B and C were planned to be launched in the early 1980s, with Sphinx B being a repeat of the destroyed satellite.
See also
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20020702065458/http://www.astronautix.com/craft/sphinx.htm Entry at Encyclopedia Astronautica]
{{Orbital launches in 1974}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sphinx (Satellite)}}
Category:Satellite launch failures