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from the unscheduled-spontaneous-disassembly dept.
SpaceX held a press conference on Monday to discuss the results of a months-long investigation conducted by itself and NASA into an anomaly that took place during a static fire test in April. The investigation found that the "anomaly" that occurred during the test was the result of oxidizer mixing with the helium component of the SuperDraco rocket engine propellant system at very high pressure.
On April 20, SpaceX held an abort engine test for a prototype of its Crew Dragon vehicle (which had been flown previously for the uncrewed ISS mission). Crew Dragon is designed to be the first crew-carrying SpaceX spacecraft, and is undergoing a number of tests to prove to NASA its flight-readiness. After the first few tests proved successful, the test encountered a failure that was instantly visible, with an unexpected explosion that produced a plume of fire visible for miles around the testing site at its Landing Zone 1 facility in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Also at Ars Technica and Teslarati.
See also:
SpaceX's response to Crew Dragon explosion unfairly maligned by head of NASA
Update: In-Flight Abort Static Fire Test Anomaly Investigation
Previously: Reuters: Boeing Starliner Flights to the ISS Delayed by at Least Another 3 Months
SpaceX Crew Dragon Suffers "Anomaly" During Static Fire Test
Investigation Into Crew Dragon Incident Continues
[Ed Note - The article at Teslarati has a good description of the suspected failure.]
(Score: 2, Interesting) by nitehawk214 on Tuesday July 16 2019, @03:10PM (1 child)
There was a reason NASA had the Gemini program and did not go straight to Apollo.
Starship doesn't actually exist yet. SpaceX needs to fly actual people into actual space and work with the systems before it builds what would easily be its most complicated spacecraft to date. Crew Dragon isn't terribly revolutionary, aside from its ability to be reused. Better to test out the techniques of spaceflight in a design that has been proven to work.
If Crew Dragon can't succeed, why would anyone trust Starship?
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday July 16 2019, @06:29PM
Nobody said Crew Dragon can't succeed. But Crew Dragon is a bit of an afterthought and hackjob that can't even do the propulsive landings that were previously planned. Starship on the other hand is designed from the start with the purpose of putting a large amount of people onto the surface of Mars. Starship is intended to replace all Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches, for any purpose.
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