Posted on 04/30/2019 2:05:56 PM PDT by Yossarian
(...)
More than a week after the explosion, SpaceX remains silent about the incident. At this moment, even an “anomaly” in its test capsule should rattle the engineers, astronauts, and administrators invested in Dragon’s success. SpaceX was well on its way to launching American astronauts into space, a historic first in U.S. spaceflight history.
(...)
Barely two months ago, the same capsule was docked to the International Space Station, circling Earth. It arrived without people—this was only its first flight, after all—but plenty of fresh supplies, and the astronauts on the station opened the hatches and floated in. Several days later, the Dragon returned to Earth and parachuted to the Atlantic Ocean, ready for more tests, in preparation for a flight with people on board.
(...)
The first SpaceX launch of American astronauts will be celebrated not only as a win for the commercial space agency, but also as a national achievement, a dazzling showing of American ability. A lack of transparency, a frequent hallmark of private technology companies, won’t work here.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Some silence, allowing them to focus on finding the true root cause? Sure, that's reasonable.
Total silence, considering how much we already use Cargo Dragon, and the health risks of the hypergolic propellants released in Florida? Not good.
I don't think the Cargo Dragon should launch to the ISS...
...until enough of the investigation can be published...
...that shows that the systems common to both Crew And Cargo Dragon variants...
...can be ruled out as the cause of the explosion.
The safety of the ISS and its crew demands at least that much transparency.
This was A TEST
That is where YOU WANT TO find problems.
THEY DON’T HAVE TO tell anyone what happened especially if they don’t think it makes any difference.
When you test, you test at EXTREMES.
It is less important if it woks when everything goes right- you want to test to make it work when things start to go wrong.
I hope this ‘explosion’ gave them useful data that will save lives.
Watched videos and some space-related YouTube videos on this while eating lunch. That was clearly an explosion that based on the last frames of the available video shows the capsule and stand totally destroyed. Not sure why this is such a secret. Accidents happen and there is a lot of trial-and-error underway. Idiocy to expect perfection. This was a test for that reason. The real failure is the jump to secrecy, which undermines SpaceX and NASA credibility.
When you "test," do you do so with a version designed to be tested, or do you take a production version and test something new with that? Do you use the tested version to then build the final product, or do you build the final product and hope it passes the tests?
I haven't been following this, but if they caused a production capsule to explode, what were the chances of that explosion happening while the capsule was docked at the ISS?
-PJ
All this may be true. I know not.
I do know The Atlantic is a Marxist/Progressive POS and wouldn’t give it a glance.
“Accidents happen and there is a lot of trial-and-error underway”
Yep. Rocket scientists keep blowing shit up until something eventually flies ...
The silence is expected. SpaceX stated that the explosion occurred when the Superdraco rockets were fired and that the capsule was on a shake table, simulating a rocket exploding underneath it.
The capsule is in a million pieces and the area is still toxic, so patience is required.
This was the same capsule that flew to the ISS a month before the test.
Yes.
That is where YOU WANT TO find problems.
Yes.
THEY DON’T HAVE TO tell anyone what happened especially if they don’t think it makes any difference.
No, disagree. Not when it is done for a taxpayer-funded program that attaches to a $100 Billion space station, and on a system that will carry human beings on it.
In that case it is incumbent on SpaceX to release enough information - with backing evidence - to show that both human lives and government assets are not being put at risk.
When you test, you test at EXTREMES.
Not always. The lack of transparency means that we just don't know the parameters of this test, and if those parameters influenced the failure mode.
Chit happens.
Testing is where you want the failures
I'd have expected a test like that to be done before the first production use of the capsule, not after with a production capsule.
-PJ
X space sucks and they dont care about safety of employees. Probably a coverup.
True. This is a big reason why I FULLY support NASA's investigations into so-called (by them) "Green" rocket fuels. Hypergolic fuels - at least in their present forms - are nasty, nasty substances. NASA & SpaceX should have to disclose the volume and wind-drift of the explosion-caused hypergolic fuel cloud.
so patience is required.
True. But then that patience needs to be extended to the upcoming Cargo Dragon Launch. If the root cause was in a system shared by all Dragon capsules, that puts the ISS and its crew at risk.
Bomb like devices are occasionally gonna ‘splode.
Basic Physics and Chemistry mixed with Engineering.
True. But then that patience needs to be extended to the upcoming Cargo Dragon Launch. If the root cause was in a system shared by all Dragon capsules, that puts the ISS and its crew at risk.
...
The cargo version doesn’t have Superdraco engines.
They are for aborting manned missions only.
I'm all for testing. However, we, the taxpayers and owners of NASA, don't know if this test was done at extremes, or if the extremes conditions (if the case) influenced the failure mode causing the massive explosion.
There should be some transparency, and until then, a hold put on Dragon missions, crewed or un-crewed.
...which is also used by Cargo Dragon. Which is supposed to launch to the ISS in under a week.
I can even see testing a unit that's been to space and back to see if the stress of flight caused a structural weakness.
It's just that I would have done that before sending the first unit to dock with the ISS.
-PJ
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