50 YA: Discoverer V Failure

Well, blast it, I'm off again... by several days this time. Sorry again... busy weekend.

On August 13, 1959, the military launched another attempt in the Discoverer series, which is the satellite spy series that tested the technology that would eventually be used in the secretive and successful Corona series later on. 

As usual, the Discoverer satellite was launched onboard the Thor-Agena booster system. The launch was successful, but the mission failed due to a power failure in the satellite which prevented the film cannister re-entry capsule from returning successfully. 

Let's remember though, that mission failures always help us to learn what can go wrong and prepare the next mission more carefully. We build successes on our failures. In those early days of space launches, the US did a lot of building...