I've watched this over twenty times and still shake my head in amazement when the first stage lands. What a remarkable ship and incredible team of people that build and operate it.
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NEWS Space X nails it!
- Thread starter Flash
- Start date
And they did it again, on the ship...again. This one was even more challenging than the others because it launched a geo-synchronous payload putting the rocket under additional stress and loads when reentering and trying to set up for landing.
Apparently the stress was too much for the booster and it sustained heavy damage, unlikely to fly again. Still an admirable achievement.
Not so much now: the first refurbished rocket blew up on the pad today at Cape Kennedy during a static fire test, completely destroying the rocket and payload.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...explosion-rocks-launch-pad-at-cape-canaveral/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...explosion-rocks-launch-pad-at-cape-canaveral/
Apologies, the rocket that exploded was not previously used, but it is still concerning that Space X has had two launch anomalies within the past two years.
While this is true from the perspective of a fairly new company needing to show reliability, keep in mind how many times NASA had a rocket explode during the space race:
DesertRooster
The King of Nothing
The payload was destryoyed too, an Amos 6 communication satellite for Spacecom From Israel.
The satellite may have been partially used by Facebook to increse internet connectivity in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The satellite may have been partially used by Facebook to increse internet connectivity in Sub-Saharan Africa.
True, but Space X is almost entirely reliant generating revenue from launch contracts, whereas NASA's early funding was pretty inelastic.
True, and as mentioned, the payload was destroyed which probably doesn't help.
GroundPounder
Well-Known Member
Launch director: Make sure that we get in touch with the home office, I want them to hear the bad news from us and not the press. Tell them the rocket blew up on the pad.
PR person: Blew up sounds so serious, I'll just let them know we suffered an anomaly.
Gotta love the fireworks. Looks like it started on the tower side of the LOX tank, curious to find out what happened.
In that case I'm anxiously awaiting a call from Space X, I'm sure my Economics degree will come quite in handy
Well the Russians have been doing it for over 50 years and their stuff still blows up with regularity, shit happens when you play with fire. If the anamolies are related or part of a pattern then it becomes more of a problem but given how aggressive and ambitious SpaceX has been I am not surprised they have had some failures.
That is one hell of an explosion, very unusual that it occurred on the upper stage.
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