SpaceX Launches another resupply - with a Jax twist

[acme54321]

If they can land this thing I wonder if they will tow it down to the Cape or into Jacksonville?  IT would be cool to see it pass under the Dames Point.

[spuwho]

If they can land this thing I wonder if they will tow it down to the Cape or into Jacksonville?  IT would be cool to see it pass under the Dames Point.

My understanding is that if they are successful, it will be taken to the SpaceX facility at the Cape. The question is are they going directly to Canaveral, or are they going down the Intercoastal?

Depends how they will tether the reclaimed booster.

[spuwho]

Well unfortunately it never got very far today.

Just before MECO (main engine cutoff) there was a malfunction and the craft broke up.

Watching the videos you see large white clouds envelope the craft several times and then poof everything stops and parts start falling to earth.

Armchair quarterbacking it, it appears the malfunction started when the second stage started spooling up for the post MECO firing.

You can still see the main engines running while the white cloud gets larger. This is what makes me think the second stage malfunctioned.

SpaceX has a live video feed inside the 2nd stage booster area and inside the tanks of the first stage. I am pretty sure they will figure this one out pretty quick.

[spuwho]

Data shows an over pressure in the LOX section of the second stage as it was spooling up for post MECO ignition.  The "cloud" you see in the video just before breakup is the release of LOX into the atmosphere.

This one hurts. The Cargo Dragon was carrying not only the Microsoft Hololens 3D training system, it was also carrying the new docking ring for the Boeing CST-100 and SpaceX Crew Dragon in prep for manned flights in 2017. This was also the flight that had the corrected gear for the controlled re-entry of the booster east of Jax.

https://www.youtube.com/v/WTVkhp0MxMc

[Jason]

I wasn't aware that there was any cargo aboard, thought it was just another test launch.  I wonder how much it is going to cost to replace the lost cargo?

Thank God there was nobody aboard!

[spuwho]

I wasn't aware that there was any cargo aboard, thought it was just another test launch.  I wonder how much it is going to cost to replace the lost cargo?

Thank God there was nobody aboard!

There was about 4000 lbs of supplies stored in the Dragon capsule. Some were science experiments by high school kids. In fact there was a experiment onboard that was a second try. The first one was destroyed on the Antares failed launch.

The Air Force Range Safety office at Canaveral announced that they had sent a self destruct command to the rocket at about the same time it blew apart. But they cant tell yet if that stopped it or the breakup of the craft occurred first.

The Dragon capsule was still sending telemetry shortly after it broke up, but for how long they didnt say.

As for future safety, this is where a launch abort command would have been executed and the capsule would have been rocketed away from the malfunctioning rocket.

That very system was just tested a few weeks ago.

[spuwho]

SpaceX is reporting that a strut holding a helium tank failed and this created an overpressure event that caused the 2nd stage to fail.

While it is interesting that SpaceX makes almost all of their own materials, the struts are outsourced.



Basically when the strut failed, the helium bottle broke loose and while bouncing around, the feed line got pinched momentarily which triggered the overpressure event. The bottle then settled back down, which unpinched the feedline and restored helium flow, but it was too late.

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2015/07/spacex-falcon-9-failure-investigation-focuses-update/

Oddly, SpaceX admitted they don't pre-test the struts. They are spec'ed to support 10,000 lbs of stress, but the models show this strut failed at 2000 lbs. They went back and tested other struts and found "irregularities". Now they are going back to certify all the struts already installed which will delay them 3-4 months.

[Jason]

It's amazing they are able to determine what happened with such accuracy. 

[spuwho]

It's amazing they are able to determine what happened with such accuracy.

Well, I think after you read the linked story "accuracy" is still in doubt to some degree. This response is based on less than a second of telemetry from the craft.

The fact they found the irregularities in existing struts gives them some confidence in their findings.

As you can imagine, they are locating a new supplier for the struts.

What I found interesting was the activities of liquids during a high G lift. The liquid goes "up" not down.

I knew the Saturn V needed tank baffles to keep the fuel from propogating, but I didnt know it was caused by the actions of G forces.