8/19/2023 0 Comments Falcon 9 rocket fuel second stage![]() To date they have not found any evidence for debris beyond the immediate area of LC-40, the company said. Searchers have recovered “the majority of debris from the incident has been recovered, photographed, labeled and catalogued, and is now in a hangar for inspection and use during the investigation.” Since the explosion showered debris over a wide area, searchers have been prowling surrounding areas and other nearby pads at the Cape and Kennedy Space Center, hunting for evidentiary remains that could provide clues or answers to the mystery of what’s at the root cause this time. Furthermore SpaceX will have to manufacture a new transporter-erector. Then a repair, refurbishment, testing and recertification plan needs to be completed to rebuild and return pad 40 to flight status. 1 calamity where pad 40 suffered significant damage and will be out of action for quite a few months at least as the damage is catalogued and evaluated. Launches were able to recommence relatively quickly because the June 2015 disaster took place at altitude and there was no damage to pad 40. It’s the job of the AIT to find out – especially because American astronauts will be flying atop this rocket to the ISS starting in 2017 or 2018 and their lives depend on its being reliable and robust.Īfter the last failure in June 2015, it took nearly six months before Falcon 9 launches were resumed. Large scale redesign of the second stage helium system may be warranted since two independent failure modes have occurred. “At SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, CA, our manufacturing and production is continuing in a methodical manner, with teams continuing to build engines, tanks, and other systems as they are exonerated from the investigation.”īut SpaceX will have to conduct an even more thorough analysis of every aspect of their designs and manufacturing processes and supply chain exactly because the cause of this disaster is different and apparently went undetected during the CRS-7 accident review.Īnd before Falcon 9 launches are allowed to resume, the root cause must be determined, effective fixes must be identified and effective remedies must be verified and implemented. Through the fault tree and data review process, we have exonerated any connection with last year’s CRS-7 mishap.”Īnd they are thoroughly reviewing all rocket components. “All plausible causes are being tracked in an extensive fault tree and carefully investigated. ![]() However SpaceX says that although both incidents involved the second stage, they are unrelated – even as they continue seeking to determine the root cause. The first failure involved a catastrophic mid air explosion about two and a half minutes after liftoff, when a strut holding the helium tank inside the liquid oxygen tank failed in flight during the Dragon CRS-7 cargo resupply launch for NASA to the International Space Station on J– and witnessed by this author. 1 calamity also counts as the second time a Falcon 9 has exploded in 15 months and the second time it originated in the second stage and will call into question the rocket’s reliability. There were no injuries since the pad had been cleared. ![]() Credit: Ken Kremer/īoth the $60 million SpaceX rocket and the $200 million AMOS-6 Israeli commercial communications satellite payload were completely destroyed in a massive fireball that erupted suddenly during the planned pre-launch fueling and hot fire engine ignition test at pad 40. 8, 2016 after fueling test explosion destroyed the Falcon 9 rocket and AMOS-6 payload and damaged the pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL on Sept. ![]() SpaceX reported that investigators “are currently scouring through approximately 3,000 channels of engineering data along with video, audio and imagery.” Aerial view of pad and strongback damage at SpaceX Launch Complex-40 as seen from the VAB roof on Sept. That conclusion is based on examining 3,000 channels of data. Indeed the time between the first indication of an anomaly to loss of signal was vanishingly short – only about “93 milliseconds” of elapsed time, SpaceX reported.ĩ3 milliseconds amounts to less than 1/10th of a second. ![]()
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