4 ms·

Space is certainly hard, even for those that people might assume are good at it (NASA, Roscosmos, etc.). This failure is a likely setback for man-rating the fal

by thearn4 11y ago

Space is certainly hard, even for those that people might assume are good at it (NASA, Roscosmos, etc.). This failure is a likely setback for man-rating the falcon in the future.

aerovistae 11y ago
Doubt it. If anything this is a PERFECT illustration of how well SpaceX is preparing. They know things like this can happen. Notice there was an extended period (multiple seconds) of the rocket smoking before it exploded. Everyone, automated systems included, KNEW something was wrong at that point, before it exploded. At which point dragon would have used its abort system to blast away from the first stage, and made a safe landing. There is almost no question that had there been people aboard this particular launch, and they were using the newer Dragon that has that capability, no loss of life would have occurred. Unless (of course) there were OTHER malfunctions, too. Never know. Space is indeed hard.
- italophil 11y ago
  Can Dragon abort and separate at Max Q? If I recall correctly the Space Shuttle had several flight periods at which it wouldn't have been able to separate from the boosters and / or tank.
  - arjunnarayan 11y ago
    Yes. Later this year they're doing an in-flight abort test not-quite-at-max-Q, but close enough. Source: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2015/01/spacex-ready-crewed-dragon-aborts/ http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2015/01/spacex-ready-crewed-d...
    - greglindahl 11y ago
      It's worth noting that that's Dragon V2.
  - FeepingCreature 11y ago
    To my knowledge, Dragon V2 can abort throughout the launch.
- david-given 11y ago
  From watching the video, it looks like the engine is running until breakup, which is very sudden. This suggests to me, based on no evidence whatsoever, that: 1. Something went wrong. 2. The onboard automation tried to compensate and kept going in the hope that it wasn't a fatal problem. 3. As soon as it realised it was a fatal problem and the vehicle was lost, it triggered range safety (aka the self destruct system). If the vehicle had started to topple and broken up due to being pushed sideways through the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds, then I would expect to see much bigger pieces and a slower breakup. As it is it turns from a single vehicle that's obviously in trouble to a cloud of shrapnel very, very quickly. This suggests deliberate destruction (which is the right thing to do). Although it does seem to take a long time before this happens, and you can see a piece fall off about six or seven seconds before the engines stop. This strikes me as being a lot. Maybe it's not as automated as I thought. I hope the postmortem is made public once it's done. It'd be fascinating reading. Edit: I hear a rumour that the bit which fell off was, in fact, the Dragon capsule being ejected. I wonder if it made it down all right? Probably not or we'd have heard about it by now... Edit edit: According to the press briefing they had Dragon telemetry for 'some period' after the event. So chances are it worked fine until it hit the water. I bet they have boats out looking right now in the hope it survived.
  - lutorm 11y ago
    The large object seen leaving the cloud before the final breakup has a distinctly Dragon-looking shape (https://youtu.be/2K030HRTutU?t=2m36s https://youtu.be/2K030HRTutU?t=2m36s), so it appears to have survived whatever happened basically intact. (This isn't super-surprising, Dragon is a pretty compact structure with a pressure hull, compared to a long and skinny rocket.) Gwynne stated in the press conference that, to her knowledge, the range safety system had not been activated.

by thearn4 11y ago

Space is certainly hard, even for those that people might assume are good at it (NASA, Roscosmos, etc.). This failure is a likely setback for man-rating the falcon in the future.

aerovistae 11y ago

Doubt it. If anything this is a PERFECT illustration of how well SpaceX is preparing. They know things like this can happen. Notice there was an extended period (multiple seconds) of the rocket smoking before it exploded. Everyone, automated systems included, KNEW something was wrong at that point, before it exploded. At which point dragon would have used its abort system to blast away from the first stage, and made a safe landing. There is almost no question that had there been people aboard this particular launch, and they were using the newer Dragon that has that capability, no loss of life would have occurred. Unless (of course) there were OTHER malfunctions, too. Never know. Space is indeed hard.

italophil 11y ago
Can Dragon abort and separate at Max Q? If I recall correctly the Space Shuttle had several flight periods at which it wouldn't have been able to separate from the boosters and / or tank.
- arjunnarayan 11y ago
  Yes. Later this year they're doing an in-flight abort test not-quite-at-max-Q, but close enough. Source: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2015/01/spacex-ready-crewed-dragon-aborts/ http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2015/01/spacex-ready-crewed-d...
  - greglindahl 11y ago
    It's worth noting that that's Dragon V2.
- FeepingCreature 11y ago
  To my knowledge, Dragon V2 can abort throughout the launch.
david-given 11y ago
From watching the video, it looks like the engine is running until breakup, which is very sudden. This suggests to me, based on no evidence whatsoever, that: 1. Something went wrong. 2. The onboard automation tried to compensate and kept going in the hope that it wasn't a fatal problem. 3. As soon as it realised it was a fatal problem and the vehicle was lost, it triggered range safety (aka the self destruct system). If the vehicle had started to topple and broken up due to being pushed sideways through the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds, then I would expect to see much bigger pieces and a slower breakup. As it is it turns from a single vehicle that's obviously in trouble to a cloud of shrapnel very, very quickly. This suggests deliberate destruction (which is the right thing to do). Although it does seem to take a long time before this happens, and you can see a piece fall off about six or seven seconds before the engines stop. This strikes me as being a lot. Maybe it's not as automated as I thought. I hope the postmortem is made public once it's done. It'd be fascinating reading. Edit: I hear a rumour that the bit which fell off was, in fact, the Dragon capsule being ejected. I wonder if it made it down all right? Probably not or we'd have heard about it by now... Edit edit: According to the press briefing they had Dragon telemetry for 'some period' after the event. So chances are it worked fine until it hit the water. I bet they have boats out looking right now in the hope it survived.
- lutorm 11y ago
  The large object seen leaving the cloud before the final breakup has a distinctly Dragon-looking shape (https://youtu.be/2K030HRTutU?t=2m36s https://youtu.be/2K030HRTutU?t=2m36s), so it appears to have survived whatever happened basically intact. (This isn't super-surprising, Dragon is a pretty compact structure with a pressure hull, compared to a long and skinny rocket.) Gwynne stated in the press conference that, to her knowledge, the range safety system had not been activated.