Dragon capsule suffers problem during engine test
Bad news: A SpaceX man-rated Dragon capsule suffered an “anomaly” during an engine test today.
“Earlier today, SpaceX conducted a series of engine tests on a Crew Dragon test vehicle on our test stand at Landing Zone 1 in Cape Canaveral, Florida,” a company spokesperson told Space.com in a statement. “The initial tests completed successfully but the final test resulted in an anomaly on the test stand.”
At the moment we do not have much information. We do not know if this capsule was the one that flew in March and was going to be used in the launch abort test prior to the manned mission, or whether it was another capsule planned for the manned mission itself.
Nor do we know what the problem was, or if it was a SuperDraco thruster that failed.
Regardless, this is going to cause a significant delay in SpaceX’s flight schedule. While they might be able to complete an investigation and resume flying within months, NASA will insist on a NASA-type investigation, drawn out for far longer, possibly years.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Bad news: A SpaceX man-rated Dragon capsule suffered an “anomaly” during an engine test today.
“Earlier today, SpaceX conducted a series of engine tests on a Crew Dragon test vehicle on our test stand at Landing Zone 1 in Cape Canaveral, Florida,” a company spokesperson told Space.com in a statement. “The initial tests completed successfully but the final test resulted in an anomaly on the test stand.”
At the moment we do not have much information. We do not know if this capsule was the one that flew in March and was going to be used in the launch abort test prior to the manned mission, or whether it was another capsule planned for the manned mission itself.
Nor do we know what the problem was, or if it was a SuperDraco thruster that failed.
Regardless, this is going to cause a significant delay in SpaceX’s flight schedule. While they might be able to complete an investigation and resume flying within months, NASA will insist on a NASA-type investigation, drawn out for far longer, possibly years.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
I detected a certain amount of schadenfreude in the radio news story about this this afternoon. The local news station had been absolutely silent on SpaceX prior to this, now it’s a headline on the 5PM newscast.
According to AP’s aerospace correspondent, the “anomaly” resulted in the loss of the spacecraft. “SpaceX has suffered a serious setback in its effort to launch NASA astronauts into orbit this year, with the fiery loss of its first crew capsule during testing.”
Gotta come down HARD on SpaceX for feeding us Corporate-speak gobbliegook with “anomaly”. Be honest for Pete’s sake and call it a “problem” or an “accident”.
The smoke cloud visible in photos seems to stretch the definition of ‘anomaly’.
The capsule is gone. It was shattered to pieces by a massive explosion of its hypergolic propellants. Why is this video no shown here?
http://digg.com/2019/spacex-capsule-failure-video
Turns out the “anomaly” was an huge explosion followed by an intense fire
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=SPACEX+FIRE&&view=detail&mid=15F782E84B384A6ACA2015F782E84B384A6ACA20&&FORM=VDRVRV
I’m calling SpaceX out on this one, the only reason this doesn’t rate as a “disaster ” is because no one got hurt. “Anomaly”, my tail end !
Col Beausabre
good stuff.
“V-2 Rocket Test Anomalies”
https://youtu.be/7YFU4KaJSSc
4:54
Col Beausabre:
Checked the link. That appears to be a rapid unplanned disassembly. Not an ‘anomaly’.
Here is a detailed discussion of potential causes, which may have originated spacecraft’s explosion (or even detonation).
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=48003.260
How about ” an event outside nominal test parameters?”(If you’re going bureaucrat, go all the way)
Robin: You might have changed your email address and your ip address, but I know who you are, someone I previously banned from Behind the Black. I will be watching what you write very carefully.
Animation of 2015 Process anomaly at ExxonMobil Refinery in Torrance, CA
https://youtu.be/JplAKJrgyew?t=322
Watch 3,000 tons of rocket fuel go up
11 Minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1kTAX9uWcw
47 minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUcgYmgTkEg
Blair Ivey wrote, similar to other comments: “The smoke cloud visible in photos seems to stretch the definition of ‘anomaly’.”
Actually, it is a perfect fit for the word.
Just because some people would prefer to hear “Oh, the humanity!” does not mean that it is the correct phrase to use.
It is best for us to not hear a bunch of bogus speculation in the first seventy-two hours after something has happened. We usually hear the wrong thing, fixate on erroneous reports, and draw incorrect conclusions that we believe for the rest of our lives. Robert has mentioned this before when the country was speculating on a multitude of bogus reports after a terrorist attack, which does not seem to be terrorism after all:
https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/restrain-yourself/
Engineers tend to keep emotion out of it so that we can calmly and rationally investigate the problem and find a correct solution rather than a politically correct solution. So, the catastrophic destruction of the Challenger orbiter was a major anomaly, not an “Oh, the humanity!” Those who drive political discussion and bogus solutions use the emotional phrases and words, generating feel-good solutions, such as disarming the public to make us feel safe from our law-abiding neighbors while the bad guys are shooting us.
As for what went wrong: I, too, would like to know right now, but patience will pay off by allowing an actual investigation to review designs, procedures, actions taken, hardware history, and other factors that could have contributed. A root cause and contributing factors will be determined, and most likely several changes will be made to assure that whatever happened does not happen again. There will likely be several other fixes to lesser problems, too.
Whatever happened, it does not seem to have been on SpaceX’s, NASA’s, or the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel’s radar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpSC1Ztf1UQ (5 minutes)
“Let’s not jump to conclusions just yet.“
Col Beausabre-
good stuff.
Edward-
ya’ raise a number of cogent points.
..this is good–
“Toxic Propellant Hazards”
NASA circa 1966
[National Archive collection]
https://youtu.be/Zha9DyS-PPA
22:16
“This NASA safety film demonstrates the dangers of rocket fuels, including hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide, and instructs workers in their safe handling….”
Edward, you beat me to it. Essentially, it’s industry standard to call any deviation from what is planned an anomaly regardless of the magnitude of the deviation. Look up “Delta II explosion” on YouTube and you will hear the woman speaking use the same term to describe a significantly larger RUD. Likewise, when a mission is executed perfectly it’s “nominal,” not “perfect.”