Falcon Mishap Details Emerge
SpaceX Falcon 9 Mishap: More Details Emerge, SpaceRef
“According to SpaceX telemetry received from the Dragon spacecraft showed that it too was functioning after the mishap occurred and telemetry continued to be sent back from Dragon for a significant period of time. SpaceX now confirms that the U.S. Air Force Range Safety Officer did initiate a destruct command but that this command was sent 70 seconds after the mishap occurred, as a formal matter of process. There was nothing left to destroy at that point.”
My understanding of Range Safety is that they also watch a radar display which shows the current position and where it would impact if it were destroyed or blew up. As long as it continues on course or away from land, I would think they would let it continue. You don’t want RS to destroy a vehicle because of some other effect. Once it was destroyed, the radar probably indicated multiple targets and the destruct command was sent just to be sure.
With the vehicle out of most of the atmosphere, any O2 leak would be the major force pushing the vehicle off course. I would think that first stage guidance telemetry would indicate the size and direction of those forces which could help pin point the source of the O2 leak.
With the Laws of Motion, a O2 leak would not change course. Too much inertia. It would only cause a rotation. Thisi is why a flyback has to do a 180 yaw, then fire and head back. Which SpaceX is not doing and they said they would not have enough fuel to do that and land on land. They call it a flyback burn, but it is just a retro burn. A glide back is the only way that will work to come back to land. With it after the retro reentry burn the 1st stage would be headed straight down and when there is enough air, it would turn and head back. I was wrong and USAF is wrong and I am changing my little picture to a F-4c. Their system will not work because of the Laws of Motion. I have said the F-4 wing attached to a F9 size rocket would work. I think this is Col. Olds F4 and I should have worked on it as he and I was stationed at the airbase at the same time. He was base commander.
I disagree. An asymmetric force in one direction would cause the vehicle to pitch over slightly which might be detected and corrected by the vehicle. If it were a tangent leak then yes, it would rotate which again would be detected by the guidance system and presumably corrected by vehicle attitude control.
“telemetry continued to be sent back from Dragon for a significant period of time.”
Makes me wonder how long a “significant period of time” is. Enough to track it to (or close to) its impact location?
The possibility of parachute deployment is very low, so it would likely have hit the water at terminal velocity, for the capsule that would be about 70-100 m/s (150-230 mph). Hard to imagine it not cracking open at that speed. Even if it doesn’t crack, or otherwise it manages to stay afloat, I would expect significant damage to it and everything in it.
Hurray SpaceX Falcon 9 First stage+Dragon Capsule function normally while Second stage broke up because of ruptured Oxygen tank tells whole lot what happen during the event. Air Force Range Safety officer 70 seconds late to push the destruct button when Falcon 9 blew it self up. I hope they find the Dragon Capsule in the Atlantic ocean and recover it to bring it home important cure in the investigation.
They are unlikely to find the capsule intact. The possibility of parachute deployment is very low, so it would likely have hit the water at terminal velocity, for the capsule that would be about 70-100 m/s (150-230 mph). Hard to imagine it not cracking open at that speed. Even if it doesn’t crack, or otherwise it manages to stay afloat, I would expect significant damage to it and everything in it.
Would the destruction by the RSO include Dragon?
Or perhaps Dragon was the only item left *to* destruct at +70 seconds after the incident started.
When there’s a LV failure, the RSO’s board goes into an “alert” mode that can’t be cleared without pressing the FTS button, even though there wasn’t anything left to receive that signal at that point.
No, the Dragon does not have a self-destruct.
There was a similar situation on Mercury-Atlas 1. An unmanned, sub-orbital test of the Mercury capsule. No launch escape system was fitted on that flight. The capsule did have the parachute systems. There was a launch failure and launch vehicle break-up about 1-minute after launch. The capsule was destroyed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wi…
Wow. That is one mangled Mercury capsule.
Gah! That photo was uncomfortable enough.. but the caption “The reconstructed MA-1 spacecraft after debris recovery” uncomfortably reminded me of how they did the same “reconstruction” to the two space shuttles.
http://www.theregister.co.u…
I said a lot things had to fail for an over pressure in the LOX tank to happen. Elon might be using code. If there was a structural failure. Such as a brace or weld, then normal pressure would burst the tank. That would be an over pressure for the tank in that situation.
The burst pattern was almost perfectly symmetrical, suggesting overpressure rather than structural defect.
If the cause was a structural failure, then I wouldn’t think you’d have an overpressure.
Possibly if it’s large enough. This is only after the fact. It’s unlikely to help during a flight but once you know what to look for, you can find subtle things.
This begins to remind me of the LOX tank explosion on Apollo 13. I wonder if there could be any similar sources of unexpected heat in the F9 second stage tank?