Posted on 05/06/2018 1:38:55 PM PDT by BenLurkin
When Elon Musk and his team at SpaceX were looking to make their Falcon 9 rocket even more powerful, they came up with a creative idea — keep the propellant at super-cold temperatures to shrink its size, allowing them to pack more of it into the tanks.
But the approach comes with a major risk, according to some safety experts. At those extreme temperatures, the propellant would need to be loaded just before takeoff — while astronauts are aboard. An accident, or a spark, during this maneuver, known as “load-and-go,” could set off an explosion.
The proposal has raised alarms for members of Congress and NASA safety advisers as the agency and SpaceX prepare to launch humans into orbit as early as this year. One watchdog group labeled load-and-go a “potential safety risk.” A NASA advisory group warned in a letter that the method was “contrary to booster safety criteria that has been in place for over 50 years.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Yeah, because launching people into space is so safe. NASA ought to kno.......... Oh. And I can speak to it since I was involved back then.
Nothing has been a bigger threat to astronaut’s lives than NASA management. Apollo 1, Challenger, and Columbia were all management screwups.
The proposal has raised alarms for members of Congress and NASA safety advisers as the agency and SpaceX prepare to launch humans into orbit as early as this year. One watchdog group labeled load-and-go a “potential safety risk.”
...
It is a potential safety risk. That’s why there’s an escape system, and the capsule is on top of the stack. It’s a lot safer than the Shuttle.
They should ask the Challenger astronauts how this worked.
Lotta speculation that CINC had met with Kim and secured a deal then the ‘Rocketman’ was addressing Musk.
Is this a question of the government not liking competition?
Some safety experts .... are the ones that predicted president hillary.
BIG difference between “rktman” and “rocketman”.
The original shuttle design had pyrotechnics to separate the crew compartment from the bulk of the orbiter and parachute it safely to earth.
NASA management elected to remove the pyrotechnics and the parachutes.
In the challenger disaster, the crew compartment separated at the designed-in parting line, and the still living crew plummeted without the benefit of parachutes to a very hard impact with the ocean.
I have heard about that. That's horrific and absolutely typical government idiocy to not have a safety escape system.
I think they did have ejection seats for the first couple of flights. For the first launch the body flap was bent back beyond design limits from the pressure wave of the solid rockets igniting. John Young said if he would have known what happened at the time, he would have ordered an ejection. Such a mishap should have made the Orbiter uncontrollable on reentry, but obviously they made it.
Had management taken the Columbia foam impact seriously, Shuttle Atlantis was already on the launch pad and could have done a rescue.
I’m not sure that escaping out of an engulfing fireball is worth the effort. Out of a “regular” fire down below, yes, but that’s not the likely outcome of a fuel-loading incident.
Musk is Ken Lay.
Pony up tax payers
I’m not sure that escaping out of an engulfing fireball is worth the effort. Out of a “regular” fire down below, yes, but that’s not the likely outcome of a fuel-loading incident.
...
Look at a video of the Dragon launch abort test and then look at a slow motion video of the Amos-6 explosion. It took some time for the payload to fall off the rocket. Maybe you would change your mind.
You know what I find funny. A short 15 years ago the Russians tried to steal Musk’s money when he went to them to buy a rocket. Now SpaceX has pushed the Russians out of the commercial launch market, which SpaceX now dominates with their low cost launches.
According to Wikipedia, the freezing point of low sulfur kerosene is -40F.
The freezing point of oxygen is -360F.
I wonder if that 320 degree separation could itself cause an explosive risk?
bookmark
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.