4 ms·
To give them benefit of the doubt, it could be that "the reaction (...) was not expected" is trying to say "we did not expect NTO to make contact with this valv
by semi-extrinsic 7y ago
To give them benefit of the doubt, it could be that "the reaction (...) was not expected" is trying to say "we did not expect NTO to make contact with this valve". It was on a helium ullage line, after all.
- bumby 7y agoAll check valves leak to a certain extent. Not arm-chair quarterbacking here, but (without seeing their fault tree) I would expect them to know that. Expecting them to see the 'water hammer' issue is a different story
- yborg 7y agoI didn't include the followup statement from the SpaceX press release : "Titanium has been used safely over many decades and on many spacecraft from all around the world." The implication being that there's just no way SpaceX could have suspected this problem because structural titanium use in a spacecraft would inform decisions regarding its use in contact with corrosive propellant. Obviously, this was written by a PR person, not engineering management, but it plays to an image of SpaceX being a company to handwave past the hard-earned lessons of decades of "Old Aerospace" companies. They should be more careful in releasing these kinds of statements.