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SpaceX – Launch Vehicle Failure

news.ycombinator.com

241–250 of 347 posts

Re: SpaceX – Launch Vehicle Failure

#241
Bummer. Telemetry will be useful and of course. I doubt it will de-rail SpaceX.

Several interesting questions came to mind though, especially given the successful test of the Dragon 2's thrusters, which is whether or not an inflight abort could have saved the cargo. I understand that isn't practical in the general case but in the specific case of a Dragon cargo capsule, I'm wondering if they can fly one with the super draco thrusters. And have that one do the in flight abort sequence at some point in the future.

And given a rocket at mach 1+ what is the velocity of the explosion wavefront? In particular if you know that the back end of the rocket has just exploded, how many milliseconds do you have before the shockwave catches up to the front of the rocket? Could you perform a disconnect and burn of the super draco package to put the Dragon capsule far enough ahead of the shock wave to survive it?

Re: SpaceX – Launch Vehicle Failure

#242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also relevant: how many gasoline-powered cars catch fire every day (lots), and how many Tesla fires injured their occupants (zero)?

Lots? Only in movies.

I live in a major city and we have freeway closures due to vehicle fires on a near daily basis. Most recently a truck full of bread caught on fire and resulted in one of the cities most major arteries being closed both ways for 4+ hours.

Re: SpaceX – Launch Vehicle Failure

#243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also relevant: how many gasoline-powered cars catch fire every day (lots), and how many Tesla fires injured their occupants (zero)?

Lots? Only in movies.

"more than 150,000 annually, which kill some 209 civilians every year" http://www.businessinsider.com/17-cars-catch-on-fire-every-h...

Re: SpaceX – Launch Vehicle Failure

#244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also relevant: how many gasoline-powered cars catch fire every day (lots), and how many Tesla fires injured their occupants (zero)?

Lots? Only in movies.

No it happens, so friends car was overheating, opened up the bonnet to see flames, car was engulfed within 7 minutes of stopping the car.

Re: SpaceX – Launch Vehicle Failure

#245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also relevant: how many gasoline-powered cars catch fire every day (lots), and how many Tesla fires injured their occupants (zero)?

Lots? Only in movies.

"On average, 31 highway vehicle fires were reported per hour."

It's not news because it's so frequent.

http://www.nfpa.org/research/reports-and-statistics/vehicle-...

Re: SpaceX – Launch Vehicle Failure

#246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also relevant: how many gasoline-powered cars catch fire every day (lots), and how many Tesla fires injured their occupants (zero)?

Lots? Only in movies.

Over a 10 year period 2003->2013: 2,395,000 car fires causing 4,050 deaths and 13,215 injuries

roughly: 656 fires and one death every day

http://www.nfpa.org/research/reports-and-statistics/vehicle-...

Re: SpaceX – Launch Vehicle Failure

#247
post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots? Only in movies.

Over a 10 year period 2003->2013: 2,395,000 car fires causing 4,050 deaths and 13,215 injuries roughly: 656 fires and one death every day http://www.nfpa.org/research/reports-and-statistics/vehicle-...

This data is valuable but also slightly I'll-fitted for this purpose.

How many relatively recently sold modern gasoline vehicles in a similar category to the Tesla catch on fire? That's the proper number for the comparison.

Re: SpaceX – Launch Vehicle Failure

#248
Hold on.

So that's the second in a row ISS resupply mission that failed, isn't it? First was with the Progress in late April. How does this affect the ISS plans, does anyone now?

Re: SpaceX – Launch Vehicle Failure

#249
Costs and catastrophic failures:[1]

* United Launch Alliance (Boeing and Lockheed Martin): 0 "outright failures" and 83 successful launches, ~$110 million/launch

* SpaceX: 1 failure and 18 successful launches, $60 million/launch

If you are looking for someone to launch your assets into orbit, who do you choose?

[1] http://www.cbsnews.com/news/spacex-falcon-9-rocket-destroyed...

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