SpaceX Tuesday...

[FurtiveFreddy]

Can it adapt if one or more engines malfunction during launch?

I don't believe in premonitions, but I had dream about this launch a few nights ago and it didn't end well

[MartG]

FurtiveFreddy said:

Can it adapt if one or more engines malfunction during launch?

I don't believe in premonitions, but I had dream about this launch a few nights ago and it didn't end well

Yes - it's already happened during Falcon 9 launches where an engine has failed but the booster compensated and still delivered its payload to orbit

[anonymous-user]

Eric Mc said:

Looks a beast.

Doesn't it just.

[Eric Mc]

MartG said:

FurtiveFreddy said:

Can it adapt if one or more engines malfunction during launch?

I don't believe in premonitions, but I had dream about this launch a few nights ago and it didn't end well

Yes - it's already happened during Falcon 9 launches where an engine has failed but the booster compensated and still delivered its payload to orbit

It does depend on the nature of the failure. If an offending rocket motor is shut down in time, then usually the others can fire longer to compensate.

Obviously, if a rocket actually fails by going bang - then that's usually it.

[2fast748]

Eric Mc said:

MartG said:

FurtiveFreddy said:

Can it adapt if one or more engines malfunction during launch?

I don't believe in premonitions, but I had dream about this launch a few nights ago and it didn't end well

Yes - it's already happened during Falcon 9 launches where an engine has failed but the booster compensated and still delivered its payload to orbit

It does depend on the nature of the failure. If an offending rocket motor is shut down in time, then usually the others can fire longer to compensate.

Obviously, if a rocket actually fails by going bang - then that's usually it.

This is an interesting article about how close to failure successful launches can be:

http://spaceflight101.com/cygnus-oa6/by-the-number...

[FurtiveFreddy]

Reading that, it just drives home the fact that it's so mind-bogglingly complex just to get a rocket into space at all, let alone having to rely on 27 engines to all do their job within their specified parameters, as the Falcon Heavy does.

BOGGLING!

[Eric Mc]

The R7/Soyuz rocket uses 32 engines - and it's fairly reliable, notwithstanding that the launch of a Progress resupply craft only last week using one of these didn't quite go to plan.

[RobDickinson]

That was a problem with the 3rd stage though

[Eric Mc]

Yes - nothing to do with the 32 engines in the main stage of the rocket - which all worked fine - as they invariably do.

[MartG]

SpaceX return to flight delayed to January

"December 7, 10:30am EDT

We are finalizing the investigation into our September 1 anomaly and are working to complete the final steps necessary to safely and reliably return to flight, now in early January with the launch of Iridium-1. This allows for additional time to close-out vehicle preparations and complete extended testing to help ensure the highest possible level of mission assurance prior to launch."

[Beati Dogu]

Something went boom at the McGregor test facility in Texas earlier:




Could be just a regular static fire rocket test and that's steam from the water deluge system.

Either way, it's impressive.

Apparently they're not allowed to launch anything into space from here - on pain of a $25,000 fine.

[hidetheelephants]

Looks quite steamy, rocket efflux often looks pretty black.

[MartG]

"@NASASpaceflight
Nominal Static Fire test in McGregor. Impressive cloud due to trench quenched with water, leaves some unburned fuel."

[scubadude]

Beati Dogu said:

Elon's next project- Terraforming Mars, test 1- How to make clouds :-)

[MartG]

First manned Dragon flight has slipped to May 2018

https://blogs.nasa.gov/commercialcrew/2016/12/12/n...

Still earlier ( just ) than Boeing

[Eric Mc]

Seven year gap now between the end of the Shuttle and the next American manned mission.

That's a bigger gap than between the last Apollo (1975) and the first Shuttle (1981).

[MartG]

Eric Mc said:

Seven year gap now between the end of the Shuttle and the next American manned mission.

That's a bigger gap than between the last Apollo (1975) and the first Shuttle (1981).

In the same interval ( more or less ) in the '60s America went from the first manned Mercury flight to the first manned Apollo

[Eric Mc]

We now know that was an exceptional period and unlikely to be repeated unless there is some mad political or commercial imperative to beat someone in space..

[MartG]

Eric Mc said:

We now know that was an exceptional period and unlikely to be repeated unless there is some mad political or commercial imperative to beat someone in space..

Tell America that a) there is oil there, or b) there are Muslims there, or ideally c) a+b

[scubadude]

Eric Mc said:

Seven year gap now between the end of the Shuttle and the next American manned mission.

That's a bigger gap than between the last Apollo (1975) and the first Shuttle (1981).

Given the rate of progress since '61 its easy to see how people might have expected a Moon base a Mars colony by now!

1st Man in space to moon landing- 8yrs.
Last trip to moon, rockets "replaced" by reusable space plane- 6yrs.

35years later we have one space station and a variety of rockets based on 40yr old designs to get there... has to be one of the biggest visible results of the cold war.

USA went from sub-orbital to space plane fleet in 20years! No wonder people's heads were spinning in the 60's...