SpaceX News

[Tom Ligon]

The problem is, I never know the schedule. My boss (wife) is constantly tweaking it. I wouldn't be surprised to find out she's checking the SpaceX launch schedule and declaring "we need to be up at the cabin that day."

No TV or internet there.

[Giorgio]

WTF..... that was unexpected... quite sad right now...

[jnaujok]

I happened to have it streaming on two separate displays, one with a minute and a half delay. When I re-watched on the delayed stream, it was clear that one of the engines suffered a catastrophic failure, with what looked like an engine bell or maybe a protective fairing falling away from the vehicle before what looks like leaking fuel (damage to the tankage?) causes the range safety officer to press the big red button.

My guess would be a turbopump failure, or the failure of the combustion chamber on one of the outboard engines. The real shame is that it was only about 15 seconds from MECO at that point. If it had held out a few seconds longer, they likely would have gotten a successful launch, if not the landing, depending on which engine failed.

[DeltaV]

It's better that this happened now than after crewed flights begin. SpaceX will find the cause, fix it and go forward.

(Assuming here that no orbital directed-energy weapons were involved.)

[Giorgio]

When I re-watched on the delayed stream, it was clear that one of the engines suffered a catastrophic failure, with what looked like an engine bell or maybe a protective fairing falling away from the vehicle before what looks like leaking fuel (damage to the tankage?) causes the range safety officer to press the big red button.

I thought I saw some anomalous plume few seconds after it passed Max Q, but i thought it was just my bad imagination.......
Let's wait for some detailed telemetry to be published, but it was so darn near to stage separation, that it really sucks.

[jnaujok]

Just found this video from the BBC and stepped through it frame by frame.

https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews/videos ... =2&theater

Apparently, my first impression was totally wrong. The failure begins at the top of the vehicle, near the capsule itself. It looks like either the tank failed, or the structural component failed. Watching the video carefully it looks more like what's falling is the Dragon capsule itself, separated from the second stage and trunk module.

But again, it's clear that the first stage did *not* have an engine failure during that period. All nine engines are still firing after the first big plume.

I'm wondering if there was a structural failure because they added more cargo after the Russian Progress failure.

Still, it's a sad day.

[DeltaV]

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/615185076813459456

There was an overpressure event in the upper stage liquid oxygen tank. Data suggests counterintuitive cause.

[jnaujok]

The failure begins at the top of the vehicle, near the capsule itself. It looks like either the tank failed, or the structural component failed.

There was an overpressure event in the upper stage liquid oxygen tank. Data suggests counterintuitive cause.

Nailed it.

[Giorgio]

It sucks even more. If it hold 20 seconds more until stage separation they could have at least attempted the first stage landing on the barge.....

[jnaujok]

Shotwell just said during the conference that Dragon did survive the event as they received telemetry from it after the loss of the craft. Makes me wonder if they attempted to signal it to deploy parachutes and recovered it.

In fact, the conference just ended with her reiteration that they received telemetry data from "a healthy Dragon" long after the event. She was really coy about the debris recovery efforts as well. I think they are attempting to recover the capsule.

[DeltaV]

The failure begins at the top of the vehicle, near the capsule itself. It looks like either the tank failed, or the structural component failed.

There was an overpressure event in the upper stage liquid oxygen tank. Data suggests counterintuitive cause.

Nailed it.

Nailed the stage 2 structure/tank failure.

Now, was it due to the payload coming loose (nasaspaceflight.com leading theory, 2nd heaviest payload), or something else, like a containerized laser on a Chinese-flagged cargo ship?

(Hey, if they are bold enough to hack decades worth of security clearance applications for US federal employees and contractors...)

Maersk Wolfsburg
Home Port: Hong Kong
Operator: Univan Maritime HK Ltd., Hong Kong

[jnaujok]

(Hey, if they are bold enough to hack decades worth of security clearance applications for US federal employees and contractors...)

To be fair, it turns out that the "Hack" of the OPM was due to the fact that admin passwords were GIVEN to a Chinese outsourcing firm by government employees. Yet another reason why outsourcing is bad for America.

[Maui]

WTF..... that was unexpected... quite sad right now...

I'm annoyed at how bummed out I am about this. 4 hours later still can't shake it.

I imagine the birthday Elon in having is a little different than the one he imagined.

[hanelyp]

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/615185076813459456

There was an overpressure event in the upper stage liquid oxygen tank. Data suggests counterintuitive cause.

Fail open of the pressurization system valve?

[DeltaV]

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/615431934345216001

Cause still unknown after several thousand engineering-hours of review. Now parsing data with a hex editor to recover final milliseconds.