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SpaceX SN9 Explodes on Landing

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Re: SpaceX SN9 Explodes on Landing

#31
post #6

When you look at the history of the space race between Soviets vs USA, one thing that is clear is the approach used by both countries to engineer their craft were very different. The Soviets would do design by testing and blow up many rockets and gather data vs the USA which would be more up-front about it's design and design testing before gong live. SpaceX clearly took the Soviet's approach to rocket design. EDIT:…

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Re: SpaceX SN9 Explodes on Landing

#32
post #26
post #2

Illustration how "move fast and break things" in aerospace domain works.

‘We may crash, but at least we do it with style!” Somehow that should be an Elon tweet.

If you happen not to have seen it, "How Not To Land an Orbital Rocket Booster": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvim4rsNHkQ from SpaceX.

Re: SpaceX SN9 Explodes on Landing

#34
post #6

When you look at the history of the space race between Soviets vs USA, one thing that is clear is the approach used by both countries to engineer their craft were very different. The Soviets would do design by testing and blow up many rockets and gather data vs the USA which would be more up-front about it's design and design testing before gong live. SpaceX clearly took the Soviet's approach to rocket design. EDIT:…

Does anyone know some good books that explore the space race? I've read Carrying the Fire(which was excellent), but it doesn't touch much on what the Soviets were doing.

I found "This New Ocean" by William E. Burrows to be a rather good account of the first space race, as it covers both sides in an equal amount of detail.

Re: SpaceX SN9 Explodes on Landing

#35
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While the US had better tech and improved design they all tested the shit out of things before going live and then ran live tests on unmanned rockets, many of which exploded quick spectacularly. Soyuz might be safe now, but that safety was paid for by many near-misses and in several cases in cosmonaut blood. Your statement regarding US vs Soviet approach to the space race is simply wrong.

> As of 2020, there have been 15 astronaut and 4 cosmonaut fatalities during spaceflight. Astronauts have also died while training for space missions, such as the Apollo 1 launch pad fire which killed an entire crew of three The numbers don't really seem to support your assertion that NASA is generally much safer than Soviet/Russia

At least 126 technicians and cosmonauts were killed by accidents during the Soviet space program. It’s rumored that additional cosmonauts died on missions that the Soviets covered up.

Re: SpaceX SN9 Explodes on Landing

#37
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While the US had better tech and improved design they all tested the shit out of things before going live and then ran live tests on unmanned rockets, many of which exploded quick spectacularly. Soyuz might be safe now, but that safety was paid for by many near-misses and in several cases in cosmonaut blood. Your statement regarding US vs Soviet approach to the space race is simply wrong.

> As of 2020, there have been 15 astronaut and 4 cosmonaut fatalities during spaceflight. Astronauts have also died while training for space missions, such as the Apollo 1 launch pad fire which killed an entire crew of three The numbers don't really seem to support your assertion that NASA is generally much safer than Soviet/Russia

But the U.S. has sent 3x as many citizens into space: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_space_travelers_by_nat...

So combining with your statistic the U.S. has a fatality rate of 4.4% versus Russia's 3.3%. Given the low N it's probably within margin of error.

Re: SpaceX SN9 Explodes on Landing

#38

Failure with one of the engines on re-light: https://twitter.com/MurkyWanders/status/1356703469986586626 "I bet they needed that." As others have noted, SN10 is standing by. Somewhat uncomfortably close by: https://i.imgur.com/F9rsBbD.png It's so exciting to be a spectator of these events.

They're definitely going to need to inspect it for damage, but it does seem odd not to be THAT close

Re: SpaceX SN9 Explodes on Landing

#39
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While the US had better tech and improved design they all tested the shit out of things before going live and then ran live tests on unmanned rockets, many of which exploded quick spectacularly. Soyuz might be safe now, but that safety was paid for by many near-misses and in several cases in cosmonaut blood. Your statement regarding US vs Soviet approach to the space race is simply wrong.

> As of 2020, there have been 15 astronaut and 4 cosmonaut fatalities during spaceflight. Astronauts have also died while training for space missions, such as the Apollo 1 launch pad fire which killed an entire crew of three The numbers don't really seem to support your assertion that NASA is generally much safer than Soviet/Russia

Both had two vehicles lost in space/reentry, the shuttles just held more astronauts. In terms of percentage of fatal missions the two were roughly equivalent, with Soviet failures front-loaded into less sophisticated and less safe early vehicles while the US failures were later on an overly-complicated system design.

Re: SpaceX SN9 Explodes on Landing

#40
post #2

Illustration how "move fast and break things" in aerospace domain works.

They landed a lot of falcon 9 first stages without legs on the water, vertically, to test the control system. And a number of attempted barge landings with legs failed, before the first successful landing. Now it's almost a routine thing.
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