LJ1.
Capsule accidental launch only

During pre flight battery charging, a "glitch" or "Transient", caused the escape motor to fire, and realeasing the marman band, the capsule and tower shot down range. However, there was insufficient power in the batteries left to activate the recovery devices, and the capsule was totally destroyed. I think the only way to distinguish LJ1, and LJ6 so far, is the "aero spike" and the a-B sensor that you could mistake for a "spike", on the top of the escape motor, but actually looks like an arrow head. It was used to sense the "angle of attack" and the "angle of yaw". The other tubular sensor was the "head pressure tube". The Aero spike was used on LJ6 and was larger than the later production aero spike as used on the "five" series.

LJ5,LJ5A and LJ5B used there own design of aero spike. (see under "towers".) Half orange transition on booster, orange on lower section of capsule does not go up as far as the junction with the corrugated inconel.

Click here for home page