SpaceX Rocket Fails Catastrophically

[unokitty]

SpaceX launch ends in failure, rocket erupts

The seven previous SpaceX supply runs, dating back to 2012, had gone exceedingly well.

This is the second failed station shipment in a row and the third in eight months.

In April, a Russian cargo ship spun out of control and burned up upon re-entry, along with all its precious contents. And last October, another company's supply ship was destroyed in a launch accident.

This Dragon had been carrying replacement food, clothes and science experiments for items lost in those two mishaps.

The three space station residents were watching the launch live from orbit.

"Sadly failed," space station astronaut Scott Kelly said via Twitter. "Space is hard."

Sorry to hear this.

Best of luck to Elon Musk and SpaceX.

Uno

 

[MovingTarget]

Space is hard.

QFT

My condolences to the SpaceX team on this one. They have been doing quite well with their previous resupply missions and other work. I'm really interested to see the report detailing what caused the failure though.

 

[Blue_Max]

"Space is hard."

Monumentally so!

Here's hoping a few human errors and/or crazy saboteurs don't deter us from further attempts! [crossing fingers]

[edited for clarity]

 

[Brainonska511]

Monumentally so - especially with human saboteurs with agendas incompatible with humans in space.

Here's hoping a few human errors and/or crazy saboteurs don't deter us from further attempts! [crossing fingers]

Foil hat anyone?

 

[Blue_Max]

Foil hat anyone?

Oh, of course... no one would every want to possibly sabotage a space program.

I didn't even say this WAS, only questioning the possibility because there are some groups genuinely against space exploration. So say something other than hurling an insult, eh?

 

[trenchfoot]

Live and learn as the saying goes. No loss of human life, maybe a few guys get held responsible and fired.

IMO, it's the pressure of turning a bigger better profit from this venture that's the end cause of failure of this magnitude. The risk takers with their inssesant urge for a bigger return on their investment $$$ makes being more careful, more patient and more thorough in prepping and executing a launch deeds that are anathema to a myopically focused profit taker.

And guess who has more of a say in balancing this formula of better prep over more profit?

 

[Paratus]

Resupply is going to start becoming a problem now that the three main resupply vehicles have had failures in the last year. It's not an immediate problem but we need to start hitting more than one or two resupplies in row. (in my opinion not speaking for my employer)

Orbital blew up right after launch last October
Progress spun out of control in April
And now SpaceX

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

SpaceX launch ends in failure, rocket erupts


Sorry to hear this.

Best of luck to Elon Musk and SpaceX.

Uno

My wife works in space, this is seriously going to fuck things over big time. They had a docking adapter they were going to install (1 of 2 planned) in order to make it easier to dock the next spacecrafts. With that out of the water it's totally throwing off all plans. In addition to any of the supplies that contained tests/equipment.

The public image right now is stupid though, No one can shut up about 3 failures in a row. First off, one of those was Russian - so that one was a WEE bit out of our hands.

I'm sure the next crew they are sending up is shitting bricks though.

 

[Paratus]

My wife works in space, this is seriously going to fuck things over big time. They had a docking adapter they were going to install (1 of 2 planned) in order to make it easier to dock the next spacecrafts. With that out of the water it's totally throwing off all plans. In addition to any of the supplies that contained tests/equipment.

The public image right now is stupid though, No one can shut up about 3 failures in a row. First off, one of those was Russian - so that one was a WEE bit out of our hands.

I'm sure the next crew they are sending up is shitting bricks though.

The International Docking Adapter. It's required for multiple commercial crewed vehicles to be docked at the same time.

Commercial Crew is still well over a year away so in my opinion the schedule can probably absorb the hit. This assumes we don't keep losing resupply flights.

Link to the SpaceX Crs7 mission.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/launch/spacex.html

Edit: Never seen a crew member " shitting bricks".

 

[werepossum]

We are never getting off this mudball. Damned aliens! lol

 

[davmat787]

We are never getting off this mudball. Damned aliens! lol

We just need to progress past the current technology of barely contained explosions and the inherent race condition that the fuel weight imposes.

We'll get there, but I don't think it will be in any of our life times.

 

[DucatiMonster696]

Come on guys this isn't ROCKET SCIENCE !!! /joking

Give it time. Private sector funded space missions and travel will be the catalyst for getting more and more people into space to explore and exploit the limitless resources orbiting our solar system.

 

[Exophase]

Oh, of course... no one would every want to possibly sabotage a space program.

I didn't even say this WAS, only questioning the possibility because there are some groups genuinely against space exploration. So say something other than hurling an insult, eh?

Pretty far fetched to think that someone would sabotage a resupply and science payload cargo to the ISS because they opposed space exploration. Those two things only have the barest of connection to each other.

 

[nickqt]

Pretty far fetched to think that someone would sabotage a resupply and science payload cargo to the ISS because they opposed space exploration. Those two things only have the barest of connection to each other.

Yeah, but Contact.

 

[Blue_Max]

*sigh*
Let me clarify even more.

NASA had a lot of exploded tests before SpaceX came along. I suspect ~99% chance of human error, ~1% chance of naughty human buggery.

1) While I hope it's just an error easily corrected, one shouldn't rule out all possibilities, and
2) I hope this doesn't deter further efforts.

Okay?

Let's keep 'em flying!

 

[woolfe9998]

We just need to progress past the current technology of barely contained explosions and the inherent race condition that the fuel weight imposes.

We'll get there, but I don't think it will be in any of our life times.

It really is a matter of funding the R&D rather than the difficulty of developing it. We could have workable nuclear thermal rockets in 10 years with enough funding for research.

So much of the problem with space exploration is just the economics of it. Stuff like exploding rockets doesn't help either. It makes the pols apprehensive about loosening the purse strings, particularly for manned exploration. It's so much a matter of perception and money in addition to its technological dimension. It's too bad what's holding it back are things that should have nothing to do with it in the first place.

 

[who?]

There was an overpressure event in an upper stage liquid oxygen tank. I wonder if something let loose some LOX inside the rocket.

 

[Exophase]

*sigh*
Let me clarify even more.

NASA had a lot of exploded tests before SpaceX came along. I suspect ~99% chance of human error, ~1% chance of naughty human buggery.

1) While I hope it's just an error easily corrected, one shouldn't rule out all possibilities, and
2) I hope this doesn't deter further efforts.

Okay?

Let's keep 'em flying!

There have been hundreds if not thousands of rocket launches and at least dozens of failures, but do you have any evidence that any of them have ever been sabotaged? If not you'd may as well consider the possibility that Zeus struck it down if you don't want to rule anything out.

Sometimes things just fail, they can probably identify what failed and they can take future steps to mitigate it, but they'll never have a launch vehicle with 0% chance of failure.

 

[hal2kilo]

Major bummer.

From slow mo footage, looks like the second stage did not separate from the first stage during staging or the second stage prematurely ignited.

Yes, space is hard.

 

[werepossum]

We just need to progress past the current technology of barely contained explosions and the inherent race condition that the fuel weight imposes.

We'll get there, but I don't think it will be in any of our life times.

I dunno. Government is increasingly becoming centered on wealth transfer, not wealth production. Science is increasingly being shunted from hard science to political issues, as best witnessed by NASA shifting more of its resources toward global warming and oddly, making Muslims feel better about their contributions to science. And take a look at how much we spend on, say, artificial gravity (or just understanding Gravity, and no I do not understand why Apple insists the second instance must be capitalized) compared to, say, making better boners.

 

[K1052]

Science is increasingly being shunted from hard science to political issues, as best witnessed by NASA shifting more of its resources toward global warming...

Is that you, Mr. Cruz?

http://www.factcheck.org/2015/03/cruz-distorts-nasas-mission-budget/

Though Cruz is correct that spending on earth sciences has increased during the Obama administration, his statement that it is a “disproportionate increase” does not fully reflect NASA’s budget history. In fact, NASA’s spending on earth sciences in the past has been higher as a percentage of the total budget.

In 2000, for example, the enacted budget for earth sciences was $1.69 billion, which is equal to $2.29 billion in today’s dollars when adjusted for inflation — more than the 2016 request. In 2000, that amount represented about 12.4 percent of the total enacted NASA budget; in the 2016 request, that proportion is 10.5 percent.

 

[MustISO]

Time for a REALLY large slingshot.

 

[qliveur]

At least they don't need another seven astronauts. :sneaky:

 

[nickqt]

I dunno. Government is increasingly becoming centered on wealth transfer, not wealth production. Science is increasingly being shunted from hard science to political issues, as best witnessed by NASA shifting more of its resources toward global warming and oddly, making Muslims feel better about their contributions to science. And take a look at how much we spend on, say, artificial gravity (or just understanding Gravity, and no I do not understand why Apple insists the second instance must be capitalized) compared to, say, making better boners.

Hint: all governments are focused on wealth transfer.

Economics, i.e. politics, is focused on wealth transfer.

Without wealth transfer, there are aristocrats, and there are serfs.

FreeMarket™ is, in fact, supposedly the most efficient means of wealth transfer. I know you don't hate your religion.

 

[Keeper]

Download the latest patch for Kerbal and run multiple simulations. :sneaky: