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After a Decade, NASA Finally Reveals Root Cause of Two Failed Rocket Launches

posted by mrpg on Thursday May 02 2019, @11:11AM   Printer-friendly
from the debar dept.

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956

[...] Combined, the loss of NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory and Glory satellites cost the space agency $700 million. In the years since, the space agency's Launch Services Program and the rocket's manufacturer, Orbital Sciences—which has since been acquired by Northrop Grumman—have been conducting investigations into what happened.

[...] But only now has the story emerged in greater detail. This week, NASA posted a summary of its decade-long investigation into the mission failures. Long story short: faulty aluminum extrusions used in the mechanism by which the payload separates from the rocket, known as a frangible joint, prevented the separation from fully occurring. Much of the report drills down into the process by which NASA reached and then substantiated this conclusion.

Source: After a decade, NASA finally reveals root cause of two failed rocket launches

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday May 02 2019, @12:29PM (3 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday May 02 2019, @12:29PM (#837816) Journal

    and these aren't the kinds of parts you can test functionality of before use.

    Bullshit! Bollocks!
    Science itself relies on reproducibility, even more the technology. Don't tell me that everything happens by random magic.

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  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday May 02 2019, @12:43PM (1 child)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Thursday May 02 2019, @12:43PM (#837821)

    Don't tell me that everything happens by random magic.

    Never said any such thing.

    I will say that "human factors" are a reliable confound of reproducability, and that's why you need to do more than make one of something and declare: "it is infallible because: science."

    Bean counters have a magical thinking that believes increasing risk by a tiny, invisible to them, fraction on a large thing is an acceptable risk when saving a few easily demonstrated pennies.

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    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday May 02 2019, @01:48PM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday May 02 2019, @01:48PM (#837851) Journal

      and that's why you need to do more than make one of something and declare: "it is infallible because: science."

      Bean counters have a magical thinking that believes increasing risk by a tiny, invisible to them, fraction on a large thing is an acceptable risk when saving a few easily demonstrated pennies.

      And TFA is even more precise on the causes and what more one should have done:

      And in 2015, the company that supplied aluminum extrusions for the four-stage, solid-rocket Taurus XL booster, Sapa Profiles Inc. (SPI), admitted that it had falsified quality control test results for its products.
      ...
      The investigation found that SPI had falsified records about the materials used in its extrusions for about a decade. Internal, handwritten accounts of SPI's material properties tests revealed that the company made alterations to more than 2,000 test results between about 1996 and 2006, affecting more than 200 customers.

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  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday May 02 2019, @02:41PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Thursday May 02 2019, @02:41PM (#837888) Journal

    Science itself relies on reproducibility,

    "Math is Hard. So let's just get rid of it." -- Barbie, from Mattel
    "Yeah, whatever she said!" -- Ken, from Mattel

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