5 ms·

OceanGate in the making. Or would that be Blue Origin?

xwdv 3y ago
Not really. Space is a really chill environment. The worst that could happen is your spaceship blows up, but we’ve gotten pretty good at not doing that lately. The bottom of the sea is far harsher and less forgiving. Everything about it tells you you’re not supposed to be there.
- kayodelycaon 3y ago
  It's a fair question because Virgin Galactic had played pretty fast and loose with safety in the past. It was only a matter of time before they killed someone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VSS_Enterprise_crash https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VSS_Enterprise_crash Fortunately, they don't seem to have had a major incident since 2014 and the FAA has certified them for commercial flights.
  - consumer451 3y ago
    > It's a fair question because Virgin Galactic had played pretty fast and loose with safety in the past. This is a tangent, but I was thinking that we got a bit lucky with the first Starship orbital flight test.[0] When you look back, chunks of fondag could have easily taken out specific Raptors which would have led to a trajectory towards a city. Now we know that Booster 7's flight termination system was basically non-functional. SpaceX has a pretty great reputation with safety, nothing like Virgin, but that Starship test seemed far from safe. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Starship_Integrated_Flight_Test https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Starship_Integrated_Fli...
    - panick21_ 3y ago
      Kind of an overestimation. From the launch site to actually have a trajectory that hits the inhabited part of the island isn't that easy. One Raptor getting hit wouldn't be enough. The whole central steerable core of engines being knocked out, and not only that, in a way that shifts the trajectory in the exact 'right' place is incredibly unlikely. Specially as the rocket would likely also try differential steering. The flight termination system might very well have worked just fine in most circumstances. By the time it was triggered the rocket was in strange position and already flipping. We don't have official information yet but it seems likely that had something to do with it. For anything bad to happen a huge number of very low-probability events would have to combine to lead to that outcome.
kayodelycaon 3y ago
OceanGate avoided certification. Virgin Galactic is licensed and certified by the FAA to do commercial passenger flights.
- Vecr 3y ago
  It's really the equivalent of a experimental aircraft though, the only reason they can take paying passengers is a law that restricts regulation of private spacecraft. It's about as FAA certified as a kit plane.
dotnet00 3y ago
Blue Origin has a very safe design with proven safety systems that can trigger autonomously at any point in the flight. Basically on par with other modern crewed American spacecraft (granted, with slightly easier conditions since it doesn't have to get up to orbital velocity and back). Virgin Galactic is definitely the closest to being a space OceanGate in the making, being deliberately manually piloted and IIRC having various points in the flight profile where it's essentially a guaranteed loss of crew if the pilots make any mistake.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

xwdv 3y ago

Not really. Space is a really chill environment. The worst that could happen is your spaceship blows up, but we’ve gotten pretty good at not doing that lately. The bottom of the sea is far harsher and less forgiving. Everything about it tells you you’re not supposed to be there.

kayodelycaon 3y ago
It's a fair question because Virgin Galactic had played pretty fast and loose with safety in the past. It was only a matter of time before they killed someone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VSS_Enterprise_crash https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VSS_Enterprise_crash Fortunately, they don't seem to have had a major incident since 2014 and the FAA has certified them for commercial flights.
- consumer451 3y ago
  > It's a fair question because Virgin Galactic had played pretty fast and loose with safety in the past. This is a tangent, but I was thinking that we got a bit lucky with the first Starship orbital flight test.[0] When you look back, chunks of fondag could have easily taken out specific Raptors which would have led to a trajectory towards a city. Now we know that Booster 7's flight termination system was basically non-functional. SpaceX has a pretty great reputation with safety, nothing like Virgin, but that Starship test seemed far from safe. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Starship_Integrated_Flight_Test https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Starship_Integrated_Fli...
  - panick21_ 3y ago
    Kind of an overestimation. From the launch site to actually have a trajectory that hits the inhabited part of the island isn't that easy. One Raptor getting hit wouldn't be enough. The whole central steerable core of engines being knocked out, and not only that, in a way that shifts the trajectory in the exact 'right' place is incredibly unlikely. Specially as the rocket would likely also try differential steering. The flight termination system might very well have worked just fine in most circumstances. By the time it was triggered the rocket was in strange position and already flipping. We don't have official information yet but it seems likely that had something to do with it. For anything bad to happen a huge number of very low-probability events would have to combine to lead to that outcome.

kayodelycaon 3y ago

OceanGate avoided certification. Virgin Galactic is licensed and certified by the FAA to do commercial passenger flights.

Vecr 3y ago
It's really the equivalent of a experimental aircraft though, the only reason they can take paying passengers is a law that restricts regulation of private spacecraft. It's about as FAA certified as a kit plane.

dotnet00 3y ago

Blue Origin has a very safe design with proven safety systems that can trigger autonomously at any point in the flight. Basically on par with other modern crewed American spacecraft (granted, with slightly easier conditions since it doesn't have to get up to orbital velocity and back). Virgin Galactic is definitely the closest to being a space OceanGate in the making, being deliberately manually piloted and IIRC having various points in the flight profile where it's essentially a guaranteed loss of crew if the pilots make any mistake.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]