Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Jack Hydrazine
Were the last 2 late aborts with the engines partially throttled up? that would signal the need to clean/ swap out engine components.

CC

6 posted on 12/02/2013 8:37:25 AM PST by Celtic Conservative (tease not the dragon for thou art crunchy when roasted and taste good with ketchup)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]


To: Celtic Conservative
Were the last 2 late aborts with the engines partially throttled up? that would signal the need to clean/ swap out engine components.

There was one abort where the engines were starting to throttle up. The computer aborted when thrust wasn't developed fast enough. The problem was determined to be with the hypergolics (stored outside the rocket) used to light the engines. Any work done on the engines would probably be for cleaning, since the engines weren't at fault.

15 posted on 12/02/2013 9:02:35 AM PST by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies ]

To: Celtic Conservative

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/007/131128scrub/#.Upy8PeJjGXM

Topped with a television broadcasting satellite, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket fired its engines and was moments away from liftoff from Cape Canaveral on Thursday, but the commercial booster aborted the launch after computers detected the engines were too slow building up thrust.

The countdown marched smoothly toward liftoff Thursday, with the rocket clearing key hurdles that hamstrung Monday’s launch attempt. The Falcon 9 pressurized its propellant tanks, switched to internal power and ignited its nine Merlin 1D first stage engines a few seconds before the appointed launch time.

But the Falcon 9’s computer-controlled countdown sequencer recognized a problem and called off the launch, shutting down the engines after they flashed to life and sent a wave of sound across the Florida rocket base.

The launch was “aborted by autosequence due to slower than expected thrust ramp,” Musk posted on Twitter.

As engineers continued to study the problem, SpaceX elected to restart the countdown to preserve a chance to launch Thursday.

Ultimately, however, SpaceX said they could not get comfortable with the issue in time and ordered another hold with less than a minute left in the day’s second countdown.

“We called manual abort,” Musk tweeted. “Better to be paranoid and wrong. Bringing rocket down to borescope (inspect) engines.”


16 posted on 12/02/2013 9:02:47 AM PST by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; me = independent conservative)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson