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Cause of Leaky SpaceX Cargo Vehicle Sourced to Faulty Inlet Joint

posted by hubie on Friday June 17 2022, @01:14AM   Printer-friendly
from the slight-delay-so-just-eat-slower dept.

upstart writes:

The propellant leak and ensuing investigation has resulted in a one-month delay to the CRS-25 cargo mission:

A SpaceX cargo mission to the International Space Station has been pushed back to no earlier than July 11 after teams discovered elevated vapor levels of propellant. [...]

Following additional inspections and testing of the Dragon spacecraft, the investigators managed to identify the source of the leak as being a faulty Draco thruster valve inlet joint, which controls the flow of propellant. [...]

This marks the second delay for the cargo resupply mission, the first delay being announced on June 6. The first delay happened after ground teams detected elevated vapor readings of mono-methyl hydrazine while loading the propellant, forcing them to stand down from the launch attempt. [...]

The NASA and SpaceX partnership continues to be a strong one. The space agency recently bought five additional Crew Dragon flights to the ISS after NASA's other commercial partner, Boeing, failed to deliver its own crew vehicle on schedule. The recent glitch with Crew Dragon, it's fair to say, likely won't have much of a bearing on this fruitful working relationship.

Previously: NASA and SpaceX Stand Down on Dragon Launch to Study Hydrazine Issue

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 18 2022, @05:59PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 18 2022, @05:59PM (#1254243)

    I'm surprised they'd have a problem like this- didn't we (tech world) learn these things long ago?

    Stuff breaks, and rocket launches involve some pretty rough handling. The critical lesson is the necessity of regular inspections and maintenance, such as what found this leak. As long as they find and fix the problems on the ground I'd say they have things well in hand.