Video Shows Giant Explosion After Accidental Rocket Launch In China:
Chinese space company Beijing Tianbing accidentally launched a rocket during a test of its first-stage power system on Sunday.
The company – also known as Space Pioneer – fired up the first-stage Tianlong-3 rocket in what was supposed to be a static test. However, due to a structural failure the rocket was launched to its destruction.
"During the test run, the first-stage rocket ignited normally, and the engine thrust reached 820 tons," the company explained in a statement. "Due to structural failure at the connection between the rocket body and the test bench, the first-stage rocket separated from the launch pad."
The onboard computer shut off automatically shortly after the unexpected liftoff, and the rocket was seen flying vertically for a short amount of time, before turning horizontal and falling back down to the ground.
The rocket fell into the mountains around 1.5 kilometers (0.9 miles) from the launch site at Gongyi City, Henan Province, China. There have been no reported casualties, according to the firm, and the surrounding area had been evacuated of personnel in advance of the launch.
Accidents of this kind are pretty rare in spaceflight history. Astrophysicist Brad Tucker from the Australian National University told the New York Times that the only comparable incident occurred in 1952, when NASA's Viking 8 broke free of its moorings and landed in the desert 8 kilometers (5 miles) away.
The Tianlong-3 rocket is intended to be reusable, as a way of reducing the incredible cost involved in spaceflight. It is hoped the latest version will be capable of carrying up to 17 tons into low-Earth orbit, or 14 tons in a sun-synchronous orbit. The unintended flight was the most-powerful system test of any test conducted in China, according to Beijing Tianbing, though the debris scattered over the nearby hills will attest it wasn't exactly a resounding success.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by VLM on Thursday July 04 2024, @02:32PM
Page 23 of SP 4401
A direct link to a NASA document is interesting but its possible to find another way; go to nrts.nasa.gov and search for SP 4401 and you'll find the original doc, of course, but it also shows up in cumulative indexes, and cumulative indexes are fun to just randomly browse. Searching the cumulative index for "computer" returned 620 interesting historical papers. Not all are freely available online but most seem to be. Wild stuff out there.
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Thursday July 04 2024, @03:26PM
He's got a youtube channel but I suspect 90% of Soylent readers already subscribe. For you 10% it's worth watching.
Of course I'm against DEI. Donald, Eric, and Ivanka.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Thursday July 04 2024, @05:25PM (1 child)
A lot of engineering and quality control goes into a successful rocketry program.
Rocket science is relatively easy by comparison.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday July 04 2024, @10:15PM
Yup! Look before you Leap.
It's an asymptotic approach. Paralysis by analysis. A lot of physical waste is avoided by simply taking the time to mull it over before building any physical structures ( oh the structures are made, but they are only imaginary models which may not be all that realizable in the real world, but much cheaper to make and require no disposal costs for the duds ).
But there comes a time when it looks like it oughta work, you've done your best, and you have to flip your design over the wall into the real world for mother nature to review. If you missed anything, mother nature will show you.
That may cost you a LOT , so you never want to have mother nature grade half-assed work. She is stern and no respecter of person, rank, or title. Her grading is meticulous and exact. She doesn't mind showing everyone that you phucked up. Not can be bribed by how much resources you squandered trying to prove your point.
So, we each pay our dues and operate somewhere on that curve of expense vs. success.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 05 2024, @12:37AM