From Aviation Week.
The Dragon capsule had successfully completed a series of 2-sec. firings of its small Draco thrusters, used for in-space maneuvering and was about 0.5 sec. from igniting eight Super-Draco launch abort motors when the anomaly occurred, destroying the vehicle, Koenigsmann said.
In plain English. The launch abort rocket engines exploded during ground testing, destroying the Dragon crew capsule.
Mechanical failure doesn't get much worse than this.
Question for the Space-X folks. Why are not the launch about engines solid fuel? The ones that blew were liquid fuel engines burning hypergolic (ignites upon contact, no ignition required) hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide. Solid fuel is stable, does not leak, and is very reliable. Launch abort means rocket the capsule off the top of, and away from, an exploding booster rocket. Never been done to my knowledge. Requires VERY rapid response.
No comments:
Post a Comment