4 ms·
Given the velocity it was going the capsule popping off the top basically turned the rest of the rocket into a supersonic flying brick. The amount of drag would
by code4tee 7y ago
Given the velocity it was going the capsule popping off the top basically turned the rest of the rocket into a supersonic flying brick. The amount of drag would be enormous and the rest of the ship basically just tore itself apart. As soon as the oxidizer and fuel combined in the crumbing mess you get a big explosion.
That was all expected to happen and why they launch these things out over the ocean. These rockets also usually have a self-destruct mechanism that a range safety officer can trigger if the rocket starts coming back towards land.
- rtsil 7y agoFalcon 9's self-destruct is automatic since a couple of years now.
- goshx 7y agoThey mention in the stream that it was not going to be used today.
- 0xTJ 7y agoBased on what they said, I'm assuming that it would have been triggered at some point before it started coming down, but they were expecting that it would be destroyed before that happened.
- JshWright 7y agoThe upper stage hit the ocean intact. That suggests the FTS was not triggered (or it was triggered and failed to destroy the stage, which would be more concerning)
- twexler 7y agoPretty sure there was a call out late in the countdown regarding arming the FTS.
- vibrolax 7y agoThey armed the FTS, as they would need that if the range safety officer needed to do that. But it was not needed or used by the RSO.
- JshWright 7y agoFalcon 9 doesn't use an FTS manually triggered by an RSO. It uses an AFTS, which is controlled by the rocket itself. My guess is it was armed for the early stages of the flight (when there was still a risk something could go seriously wrong and the rocket could start heading towards Orlandit), but it was disarmed (or just given very generous parameters) once the rocket was downrange a ways.
- bonestamp2 7y agoI suspect they'll still log when it would have happened so they can confirm it was working properly. That would be interesting to hear about.
- xenospn 7y agoDo they actually go around collecting all of the various parts that fall back into the ocean? I imagine that's a huge amount of debris.
- usrusr 7y agoAt some point there must have been a mission design meeting for this test where they decided on fuel levels in the booster. Just as much as needed to get to max Q? Just like a real launch that would put the capsule into orbit and land the booster? Something in between that creates a nice fireball but not too wasteful? (and on an entirely unrelated note, I really hate watching those parachutes bounce off each other. I know it must be perfectly safe or else it wouldn't have been the unquestioned method off choice for at least half a century, but it looks so uncontrolled it gives me nausea)
- greglindahl 7y agoWell, the decision was to fully fuel everything, including the second stage. Which had no engine.
- Klathmon 7y agoAnd even thought it had no engine, it had a "mass simulator" to replace it.
- joshvm 7y agoYou want to test this stuff as realistically as possible. Changing the amount of fuel means changing launch weight which means (presumably) changes in throttle profile etc. The control systems are also probably designed with a certain weight to reach orbit so it's possible that an unusually light rocket would be unstable. I'm not sure whether this would actually make a difference, but if you know it works at nominal fuel weight then you have some confidence it would work during a real launch.