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SpaceX Falcon 9 overall has an incredibly good flight record. They very early had one supplier part they didn't correctly validate. The other failure (non-miss
by nickik 5y ago
SpaceX Falcon 9 overall has an incredibly good flight record. They very early had one supplier part they didn't correctly validate.
The other failure (non-mission) was when they discovered a real unkown-unkown about COPV tanks and helium tanks in near 0-kelvin temperatures.
So yeah, they should not have made that mistake, but its also the case that nobody has a perfect record. Considering the errors most rocket companies have made, theirs seem fairly reasonable.
- bumby 5y agoI think they’re doing a good job but I don’t think that was a reasonable error. I give them slack in the areas where they’re pushing the into unknown boundaries of engineering. Regarding the COPV, I wish they would’ve added to the fundamental science by really investing in understanding and researching the failure. Unfortunately, they just changed the design and left the fundamental science to NASA, but I guess you can make the case that’s not SpaceX’s role. That strut case, however, is a well known risk within industry that they just didn’t manage very well.