Falcon 1, The World's Lowest Cost Rocket to Orbit |
Falcon 1, The World's Lowest Cost Rocket to Orbit |
Nov 19 2005, 06:28 PM
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#1
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3652 Joined: 1-October 05 From: Croatia Member No.: 523 |
I don't know if this is the right place to post this, but here goes:
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=18353 http://www.spacex.com/ Looking forward to launch videos... -------------------- |
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Mar 25 2006, 10:05 AM
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#2
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 51 Joined: 16-March 05 From: Clay County, Indiana, USA Member No.: 199 |
This is a little bit off-topic to today's launch, but is relevant to Comga's Post 35
I received an email from Dianne Molina at SpaceX. I had asked about the lack of email updates sent to SpaceX's mailing list subscribers. She had this to say: QUOTE Thanks Brad.
We do post updates at times and do not send to the distribution (so as not to spam as updates near launch time get frequent.) Best regards, Dianne |
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Mar 25 2006, 04:04 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 548 Joined: 19-March 05 From: Princeton, NJ, USA Member No.: 212 |
Based on the Spaceflightnow.com article it appears that a sticking "thermal coat" may have contributed to the failed launch
here are the relevant portions and I have bolded a few sentences for emphasis: "To keep the liquid oxygen from warming up and naturally boiling away while the rocket sat on its tropical launch pad before liftoff, a "thermal coat" had been wrapped around the first stage. Problems running out of liquid oxygen on the remote island have bedeviled SpaceX over the past few months. "A glaring deficiency that we had in the November and December attempts was the fact that we were basically boiling LOX at an unacceptably high rate. It is hard to get LOX on the island. So what we did was put a blanket scheme together to cover the first stage LOX tank," Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX vice president of business development, told reporters during Friday's countdown. "It is held to the rocket by Velcro and we've got lanyards that hold it down to the ground. So basically the lanyards will pull a zipper as the vehicle lifts up, a Velcro zipper, and that LOX tank insulation will stay on the ground as the vehicle flies through it." The Falcon 1 had set sail on its maiden voyage, and a video camera mounted on the rocket beamed back live footage of the booster ascending skyward. However, the launch video did not show any signs of the liquid oxygen blanket unzipping and being yanked free from the rocket by ground tethers as planned. As the vehicle climbed higher, a white blanket presumably the cover Shotwell had mentioned could be seen flapping wildly in the onboard video. Large pieces appeared to rip away at T+plus 20 seconds due to the rocket's increasing speed. The vehicle had a noticeable rolling motion, rocking back and forth a bit, and then at T+plus 26 seconds rapidly pitched over when its fiery engine plume became greatly distorted. "This is the RCO, we have an active track with the radar," the Range Safety officer announced. Just moments later the rocket impacted the ocean, apparently on its side, at about T+plus 41 seconds. Did the blanket play a role? Was the engine damaged? Did the nozzle fail? Investigators are beginning to sift through the data collected during the brief flight to construct a full picture of the launch. |
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Mar 25 2006, 04:27 PM
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14448 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
Did the blanket play a role? Was the engine damaged? Did the nozzle fail? Tune in next week to find out..... (sorry - it just sounded like it needed that ) I think getting a better Oxygen farm onto the island will now become a matter of urgency, so they can produce enough to support the boil off during tanking. Doug |
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Mar 25 2006, 04:56 PM
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#5
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3652 Joined: 1-October 05 From: Croatia Member No.: 523 |
I think getting a better Oxygen farm onto the island will now become a matter of urgency, so they can produce enough to support the boil off during tanking. Well, I suppose if you have to choose a failure mode, it might as well be a straightforward one like this that's fairly easy to fix. Certainly better than finding out the engine failed. I wish them a fast recovery and low LOX boil-off rate on the next launch! -------------------- |
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