Never underestimate a pair of tin snips
Niels
topic=23516.msg668928#msg668928>
For those who don't know the back story - SpaceX has just launched
their sucessful test of their Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon
capsule. This is under a NASA contract to supply cargo to the
International Space Station. They also have plans to man rate it....
Shortly before launch they discovered that there was a crack in the
nozzle extender on the second stage engine.
Roll it back and spend 3 months fixing it? Hell no - they sent in a
guy to cut the bottom off the nozzle. And then launched.....
Ove Ridé
That sounds a bit cheap and sloppy, but it doesn't make me laugh.
Unlike the reason why Copenhagen Suborbital's test launch failed: The
LOX valve jammed because a hair dryer (!) couldn't keep the heat up.
Picture at the following URL:
<http://rocketry.wordpress.com/2010/09/07/copenhagen-suborbitals-hair-dryer-fail/>
--
/Ove
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Blog: <http://blog.gg8.se/>
Sätt på ett par flipflops, vippa på rumpan
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Niels
impossible stuff with minimal tools - he's a known character in the
space buisness. So handcutting a Niobium rocket nozzle extension by
hand made perfect sense really.
Did you know that the first Have Blue aircraft had an engine
heatshield made out of the back of a filing cabinet? Night before the
first flight, they found out there was an overheating problem.. So
they got the tin snips out. And then pushed the cabinet back against
the wall.
On Dec 8, 10:37 pm, Ove Ridé <nitro2...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > <http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?
> > topic=23516.msg668928#msg668928>
>
> > For those who don't know the back story - SpaceX has just launched
> > their sucessful test of their Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon
> > capsule. This is under a NASA contract to supply cargo to the
> > International Space Station. They also have plans to man rate it....
>
> > Shortly before launch they discovered that there was a crack in the
> > nozzle extender on the second stage engine.
>
> > Roll it back and spend 3 months fixing it? Hell no - they sent in a
> > guy to cut the bottom off the nozzle. And then launched.....
>
> That sounds a bit cheap and sloppy, but it doesn't make me laugh.
> Unlike the reason why Copenhagen Suborbital's test launch failed: The
> LOX valve jammed because a hair dryer (!) couldn't keep the heat up.
> Picture at the following URL:
>
Russ Garrett
> Roll it back and spend 3 months fixing it? Hell no - they sent in a
> guy to cut the bottom off the nozzle. And then launched.....
To their credit they did do a root cause analysis on it (in 2 days)
and worked out *why* it cracked before they cut the bottom off it.
I was reading that NASASpaceflight thread before the launch and
everyone was extremely sceptical, it's amusing to see them change
their tune so much.
It was absolutely amazing to see that flight go so well - today has
been a real milestone in spaceflight.
--
Russ Garrett
ru...@garrett.co.uk
Niels
Niels
traditional space industry guys. Not bad people - but you can see why
everything is costed in billions.