Conestoga 1620's maiden flight, the first orbital launch from NASA Wallops in a decade, broke apart 46 seconds after liftoff when guidance-system noise triggered unnecessary steering corrections. The METEOR/COMET-1 microgravity payload with 14 experiments was destroyed, later bankrupting builder EER Systems.
- Outcome
- Failure
- Orbit
- LEO
- Low Earth orbit
- Payload to orbit
- Did not reach orbit
- Flight
- 1st
- Only Conestoga 1620 flight
- Date and time
- 23 October 1995, 22:03 UTC
- Rocket
- Conestoga 1620
- Builder
- SSI
- Launch site
- Launch Area 0 A, Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia, USA
- Payload
- Planetary Science
- Launches in 1995
- 63rd of 80