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Rocket Lab vehicle lost during second stage burn on 13th mission
- SergeAx 6y agoWebcast: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZcZoDFYjXc&feature=youtu.be https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZcZoDFYjXc&feature=youtu.be
- numpad0 6y agoIs it just me or does S2 appears rolling to the right in camera?
- bryanlarsen 6y agoIIRC, this breaks a record that no other rocket has achieved. Prior to this mission, every single Rocket Lab flight with a paying customer has been a success. Many other rockets have had 11 successes in a row, but no other rocket has had their first 11 launches with payloads be a success. (Rocket Lab's first mission was also a failure, but it did not have a payload. That failure was with ground equipment, so this current failure is their first rocket failure).
- Rebelgecko 6y agoI don't think that's quite right The Minotaur is currently 11/11 (with a 12th launch planned later this year). Space Shuttle had 24 consecutive launches before a failure The standard Delta IV has also had 24 consecutive successes.
- ls612 6y agoThe Saturn V launched 13 times with no launch failures as well.
- vosper 6y agoI'll preface this by saying I don't know much about space launches... > Space Shuttle had 24 consecutive launches before a failure The Space Shuttle system was not "a rocket", so possibly GP wasn't counting it? > The standard Delta IV has also had 24 consecutive successes. Were those consecutive successes from the first launch without a dummy payload?
- conistonwater 6y agoLaunches with payload numbers 5 through 40: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_IV#Delta_IV_launches_in_chronological_order https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_IV#Delta_IV_launches_in_... I wonder if the trick is something like "launches in the same configuration" because that would really penalize older rockets that used to undergo upgrades once in a while.
- Rebelgecko 6y agoI don't know if there's an official definition, but I'd consider the Delta IV and Delta IV Heavy to be separate launch vehicles in the same family, akin to the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy. Whereas with the single-stick Delta IV Medium, the variations like 4m vs 5m fairings are just different configurations.
- Rebelgecko 6y ago>The Space Shuttle system was not "a rocket", so possibly GP wasn't counting it? I don't see why the space shuttle wouldn't be considered a rocket? It had 3 rocket engines coming out the back of it. >Were those consecutive successes from the first launch without a dummy payload? Yes, although I goofed the math and it was actually 29. If we're excluding launches with dummy payloads, you could actually add in the Delta IV Heavy, which brings the total up to 39.
- vosper 6y ago> I don't see why the space shuttle wouldn't be considered a rocket? It had 3 rocket engines coming out the back of it. Duh, you're right, of course - I somehow was thinking just of the boosters.
- noway421 6y agoSomething happened just before the fuel pump battery hot-swap on the second stage. Here's some visualisation of the acceleration drop-off scraped from the web stream: https://twitter.com/DJSnM/status/1279583677890965504 https://twitter.com/DJSnM/status/1279583677890965504
- mar77i 6y agoGreat Scott! Love his KSP content, where he discusses space trivia to no end...
- SergeAx 6y agoI am not a rocket scientist, but this looks like the hot swap never happened. Lower power on a pump, then it completely drained battery and just stopped, engine is off, end of story. It's a bit disappointing right because this hot-swap-and-then-ditch the battery maneuver is their key know-how, it helps to keep 2S engine simpler and cheaper.
- rydre 6y agoIf the engines were shut down, the acceleration would be instantly negative. The decay happens faster, no shutdown until it hits zero.
- SergeAx 6y agoFor negative acceleration the body needs a force applied in opposite direction. Atmosphere density @ 190 km is nine orders of magnitude less than at sea level, so the drag is negligible.
- p1mrx 6y agoAt least we know Rocket Lab's webcast uses real telemetry, unlike Blue Origin, where they break the laws of Physics by pausing at 0 MPH: https://youtu.be/sUEj4dxPMbI?t=2658 https://youtu.be/sUEj4dxPMbI?t=2658
- danbr 6y agoNew Shepard is a suborbital rocket. It reaches apogee (velocity drops to zero), and drops back to land propulsively. It’s possible it experiences zero-G for more than just a few milliseconds at its apogee. Hence the 0mph velocity.
- p1mrx 6y agoYou fell victim to one of the classic blunders: conflating velocity with its derivative. The (approximately) zero-G period lasts for minutes, not milliseconds, and during that time, the velocity changes by 9.8 m/s (22 MPH) every second. The velocity should not pause at 0, or any other value.
- dmurray 6y ago22 mph per second is an abomination of a mixed unit I'd never heard before, but it's actually much more intuitive to me than the standard 9.8 metres per second per second. Maybe we can compromise on 35 km/h per second though.
- p1mrx 6y agoI wouldn't normally use MPH/s, but it fits the units in the Blue Origin video.
- mlindner 6y agoNew Shepard is not traveling perfectly vertical, there's always a horizontal component so the velocity will never be zero. Even if you fly up in a perfectly vertical line, you'll gain horizontal velocity as you climb as the Earth's surface moves away from you from it's rotation.
- cameldrv 6y agoCan someone comment on the economics of this? Rocket Lab is charging $5m for 150kg to SSO. SpaceX offers 150kg to SSO on the smallsat rideshare for $1m. What sorts of payloads would not be suitable for rideshare or would be worth 5x the cost for better scheduling or a better orbit?
- manquer 6y agoIt is never simple cost per kg calculation . Ridshare orbit depends on the primary orbit requirements, if the orbit is not favourable to your sat, correcting the orbit may not be feasible at all, given the small payload size you may not have the fuel for the correction burn Also fitting your sat to a rideshare payload adapter could be lot more complex depending on the primary and other shares Similarly while spaceX is cheap, there are plenty of workloads where ULA is the only option, vertical assembly , certain fairing sized , some orbits etc .
- gutino 6y ago- Type of orbit you want, SpaceX rideshare is like a bus trip, it will not get you exactly to your homes door. Rocket lab in this case is like a taxi. - Timing, perhaps you want to deliver sooner.
- swatkat 6y agoThere are a few companies such as Spaceflight[1] that partner with launch providers such as ISRO[2][3] to offer rideshare and dedicated launches at much cheaper prices. [1] https://spaceflight.com/pricing/ https://spaceflight.com/pricing/ [2] https://www.isro.gov.in/launchers https://www.isro.gov.in/launchers [3] https://www.nsilindia.co.in/launch-services https://www.nsilindia.co.in/launch-services
- tigershark 6y agoThey are cheaper only for nano satellites. From your first link it costs 295k$ for 10kg to LEO. With spaceX you can send up to 200 kg to LEO for 1M$. It’s 20 times the payload for ~3 times the price.
- st_goliath 6y agoObligatory analysis video by Scott Manley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayYgPdk0VVc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayYgPdk0VVc