3 ms·
Why do they still do that? I was under the impression that the rocket was held down for a second or so with the engines firing during the real launch, also.
by revelation 10y ago
Why do they still do that? I was under the impression that the rocket was held down for a second or so with the engines firing during the real launch, also.
- gizmo686 10y agoIt is. However the point of holding the rocket for a moment during the actual launch is to give the engines time to fire. The point of a static fire is to test the launch systems. The hope is that problems can be noticed before the actual launch, where they are more likely to cause catastrophic failure (and where we they might not be noticed in time to abort).
- zzalpha 10y agoThis "anomaly", as they're calling it, is why. Better to have the rocket explode on the pad in a controlled test than in the air over a populated area.