Posted on 06/28/2015 7:26:31 AM PDT by Vaquero
Edited on 06/28/2015 10:02:44 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Here’s a video of the explosion of the unmanned Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule:
UPDATE: The SpaceX rocket seems to have broken apart entirely in what looks like a major mission failure. During the feed, the rocket start smoking and then appeared to come apart altogether about a minute or more into launch. The resupply mission was thankfully unmanned.
We can’t afford manned space exploration because we’re flying to many aliens from Central America into the U.S.
We’re there any Confederate flags nearby?
SpaceX?
Elon Musk, the Howard Hughes of the 21st century.
Let’s start calling it “Spruce Goose X.”
Sometimes I wish my first name was "Elon." It was a good marketing move by his parents.
Yep.
Maximum Dynamic Pressure is a bitch.
Ok, maybe I haven't been following this as much as I should.
What I do know is that Spacex is a private company that does contract work for NASA.
Somebody else will have to finish answering your question from there.
And someone over on the launch thread aid that it is (supposedly) Elon Musk’s birthday.
If so....that REALLY sucks.
Um, SpaceX is private
Go at throttle up.
It appears to be in the third stage. That’s where the cargo hold should be, I think.
Sabotage?
Yes, the Falcon had gone supersonic and had moments before reached Max Q while traveling about a mile per second. The vehicle rapid disassembly may have been more a matter of aerodynamic forces rather than a true explosion or a commanded destruct sequence.
Doubt it.
Every gram is accounted for.
From watching the video, it appears that the second stage ignited before separation. Hard to tell without being able to go frame by frame.
BTW, Folks, this is rocket science & engineering. Leave off the snarky political comments for a while.
Of course it is “Tax Dollars” - NASA HIRED SpaceX to resupply the ISS, rather than HIRE another commercial company or the RUSSIANS.
With the exception of the Rutan/Allen SpaceShipOne to 100+km, ALL space exploration has been done with “Tax Dollars”.
Give credit where credit is due. SpaceX spent a ton of Elon Musk’s and other venture capitalist’s money to get this program started BEFORE your tax dollars were involved. So have a number of other space capitalists.
I grew up watching the early Redstone and Atlas rocket failures. Russia lost a bunch that we never heard about. The French Ariane has failed.
http://listosaur.com/science-a-technology/10-spectacular-failures-of-unmanned-rocket-launches/
That’s sad to watch. So close yet so far.
I don’t see any signs of the second stage igniting before separation. Instead, the upper part of the vehicle appears to be rapidly venting a gas for about 8 seconds before the rocket broke up. My wild guest is the second stage’s liquid oxygen tank ruptured.
Sure, sorry, I'm in a bad mood.
Keep trying Mr. Musk.
Sabotage?
They will learn from their mistakes and succeed.
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