7 ms·
Rocket explodes during testing at UK's new spaceport in Shetland
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- quectophoton 2y agoA bit light on details, doesn't say what was the anomaly (or I missed it). But at least I'm happy to see it happened down here and with (allegedly) no injuries.
- beretguy 2y agoWell, shet.
- rasz 2y ago>Rocket Factory Augsburg previously in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41270397 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41270397 linked https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRFnGnJzRJQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRFnGnJzRJQ TLDR: "outsourcing everything possible to car manufacturers and relying on software"
- rembicilious 2y agoI couldn’t get the video on bbc website to load for me but this one worked https://www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/2024/08/20/video-captures-shocking-moment-rocket-engine-explodes-and-flames-engulf-saxavord-launchpad https://www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/2024/08/20/video-captures-sh...
- simplicio 2y agoThey have a space port at 60'N Latitude? Isn't that extremely sub optimal for launching anything to orbit?
- baq 2y agoGood enough for polar orbits.
- wafflemaker 2y agoLaunching from the Equator, Eastward, is the most energy efficient way to get to orbit, but not everybody is after equatorial orbits or geostationary orbits. Lot of sats are for example spying sats, and these can use polar orbits (as the earth rotates under the sat, sat will at some point map the whole earth), or more fancy orbits that you can read about in this guide here: http://www.braeunig.us/space/orbmech.htm#types http://www.braeunig.us/space/orbmech.htm#types
- pkaye 2y agoWhy isn't there a launch site in Spain. Its more closer to the equator than what Russia uses in Kazakhstan.
- bartonfink 2y agobecause Spain's on the wrong side of the continent
- IncreasePosts 2y agoJust launch it from Alicante, by the time it makes its way to Sicily it should be good, right?
- N19PEDL2 2y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Hierro_Launch_Centre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Hierro_Launch_Centre though in this case the launches would be westwards or southwards.
- wafflemaker 2y agoWhile we're getting used to rockets "just working", it's still rocket science. Things go wrong and you'd rather have the hundred tons of fuel and aluminium (or steel since Starship) going supersonic into the ocean. Unless you're Chinese or Russian, they don't mind.
- pkaye 2y ago
- mandevil 2y agoThe Norwegians have had a sounding rocket launch site at Andoya at 69N for decades- perfect for studying the sun- and are talking about trying to turn it into a sun-sync earth observing micro-satellite launch point. I honestly don't know why the Germans are trying to turn an old Chain Home radar station in the Shetlands into an orbital rocket launch site. For sun-sync polar orbits, it doesn't really matter what latitude you launch from, you aren't getting any benefit anyway, but I wonder at exactly how many of these sun-sync earth observing satellites are going to be launched by the ESA or Europeans in general. This doesn't seem like a particularly large market to me.
- schiffern 2y ago> For sun-sync polar orbits, it doesn't really matter what latitude you launch from, you aren't getting any benefit anyway For SSO there's a small preference for higher latitudes, because there's less (unwanted) eastward velocity to cancel out.
- qayxc 2y ago> I honestly don't know why the Germans are trying to turn an old Chain Home radar station in the Shetlands into an orbital rocket launch site. Well, they aren't. RFA is just one of many customers, which also include British and US companies. SaxaVord spaceport is operated by a Scottish company and there's no connection to anything German other than some customers being German companies. Lockheed Martin UK and Californian ABL Space Systems are operating from there as well.
- jnurmine 2y agoSweden has Esrange Space Center at 68 degrees north (https://sscspace.com/esrange/ https://sscspace.com/esrange/). The ground area is 5200 square km with 6600 square km of closed airspace.
- 7952 2y agoEarth observation is still growing. And it seems to be an area where countries want to have the own capability for national security and prestige reasons.
- Someone 2y agoFTA: “It will allow up to 30 satellites and other payloads to be launched into commercially valuable polar, sun-synchronous orbits, which are in high demand from satellite operators for communications and Earth observation“ ⇒ they’re aiming for the part of the market where that doesn’t matter.
- AnimalMuppet 2y agoOne thing the article said: They don't have to do any course changes to dodge other inhabited areas.
- raverbashing 2y agoRocket science is hard. This happened and will happen with pretty much all people who tries launching a rocket. Yes including SpaceX
- LunaSea 2y agoIt's hardly brain surgery is it?
- AnimalMuppet 2y agoIn brain surgery, the brain holds still. And you don't have to use explosive chemicals to create a very intense fire that still never quite explodes. So, yes, brain surgery is really hard. So is rocket science, in completely different ways and for completely different reasons.
- MadnessASAP 2y ago> In brain surgery, the brain holds still. Only if the anaesthesiologist has done their job right. > And you don't have to use explosive chemicals to create a very intense fire that still never quite explodes. Unless the anaesthesiologist has done their job very badly.
- LunaSea 2y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THNPmhBl-8I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THNPmhBl-8I
- LunaSea 2y agoNo poneys were harmed during this incident.
- leoh 2y agoMan, how is all this combustible material in the air safe?
- lupusreal 2y agoIt's only a few tons of kerosene, and it burned up, and nobody was near it when it was burning. So what's the problem?
- IncreasePosts 2y agoAfter it blows up the first time, intentionally or unintentionally, there is a much lower likelihood of it blowing up again
- curiousgal 2y agoHow would you even begin to investigate the cause?