Mission Shortly after Ranger 1's unsuccessful mission, Atlas 117D and Agena 6002 were rolled out to LC-12 for the next attempt. Once again, getting the booster and spacecraft ready for flight proved a frustrating experience. On October 24, NASA received the news from the West Coast of the United States that a hydraulics failure had prevented Discoverer 33 from reaching orbit the previous day, which necessitated taking Agena 6002 down from the stack and giving it a thorough checkout. The stage was found to have the same problem as Discoverer 33's Agena, necessitating repair work. It took until mid-November before everything was finally ready. Liftoff took place at 3:12 AM EST on November 18. An improper autopilot signal resulted in Atlas BECO taking place 0.4 seconds early. Thus the sustainer phase of flight was initiated with below nominal velocity, but the vehicle reached orbit successfully since the guidance computer was programmed to not issue the SECO command until the proper velocity was achieved. The same malfunction had occurred on Atlas 105D/Midas 4 a month earlier and was traced to the location of the staging backup acceleration switch on the side of the LOX tank, causing the switch to be affected by the super-cold temperatures. The switch was moved to the fuel tank on subsequent Atlas-Agena vehicles.
mission shortly after ranger 1's unsuccessful mission atlas 117d and agena 6002 were rolled out to lc-12 for the next attempt once again getting the booster and spacecraft ready for flight proved a frustrating experience on october 24 nasa received the news from the west coast of the united states that a hydraulics failure had prevented discoverer 33 from reaching orbit the previous day which necessitated taking agena 6002 down from the stack and giving it a thorough checkout the stage was found to have the same problem as discoverer 33's agena necessitating repair work it took until mid-november before everything was finally ready liftoff took place at 312 am est on november 18 an improper autopilot signal resulted in atlas beco taking place 04 seconds early thus the sustainer phase of flight was initiated with below nominal velocity but the vehicle reached orbit successfully since the guidance computer was programmed to not issue the seco command until the proper velocity was achieved the same malfunction had occurred on atlas 105d/midas 4 a month earlier and was traced to the location of the staging backup acceleration switch on the side of the lox tank causing the switch to be affected by the super-cold temperatures the switch was moved to the fuel tank on subsequent atlas-agena vehicles