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1 minute ago, RealKerbal3x said:

 

So it did look like the thrust was slightly higher than expected and they are going to go for it anyway.

I wonder if they were able to see that the startup transient was tapering off over the thrust limit rather than spiking.

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17 minutes ago, JIMMY_the_DOG said:

how? like was thrust limiter basically above the recommended max?

Nice, apparently you were exactly correct.

5 minutes ago, RealKerbal3x said:

 

Raptors continue to be difficult to work with. I'm getting a "hell or high water" feeling about this launch attempt what with the decision to recycle. Betcha they'll be watching that engine very closely during the flight.

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40 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

Obviously not quite true but funny nonetheless.

Didn’t they go through almost the same thing with the first launch of F9? Scrubbed because something was outside the conservative parameters; adjusted parameters and launched an hour or so later? Blowing a shuttle tech’s mind in the process because a hot abort was at least a 24hr recycle for that bird. 

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18 minutes ago, StrandedonEarth said:

Didn’t they go through almost the same thing with the first launch of F9? Scrubbed because something was outside the conservative parameters; adjusted parameters and launched an hour or so later? Blowing a shuttle tech’s mind in the process because a hot abort was at least a 24hr recycle for that bird. 

My personal favorite was the delay due to a cracks in  the MVac engine bell. Solution was to cut the cracked bit off and launch the next day.

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22 minutes ago, StrandedonEarth said:

Blowing a shuttle tech’s mind in the process because a hot abort was at least a 24hr recycle for that bird. 

What if they needed to abort after lighting the SRBs? Can’t just shut them down. Did the Shuttle have launch clamps that could hold it on the pad with burning SRBs?

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Just now, sh1pman said:

What if they needed to abort after lighting the SRBs? Can’t just shut them down. Did the Shuttle have launch clamps that could hold it on the pad with burning SRBs?

That was the scary thing about the Shuttle. If something went wrong after SRB ignition, the only option was to commit to a short flight and 'ride out' the SRBs. Once the SRBs burned out they would have to do an RTLS abort. Super sketchy.

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7 minutes ago, sh1pman said:

What if they needed to abort after lighting the SRBs? Can’t just shut them down. Did the Shuttle have launch clamps that could hold it on the pad with burning SRBs?

I don't believe so. Once the SRBs are lit shuttle is departing or exploding no matter what.

 

Edit: Yes, the hold down charges and SRB igniters were fired at the exact same time. The exhaust plume of the SRBs can boil steel, so nothing survives it for long. Ares 1-X torched a decent section of fixed service structure during its takeoff pad avoidance manoeuvre, not that it mattered as it was due to be demolished anyway.

Edited by RCgothic
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32 minutes ago, sh1pman said:

What if they needed to abort after lighting the SRBs? Can’t just shut them down. Did the Shuttle have launch clamps that could hold it on the pad with burning SRBs?

Nope, not even close. They had multiple redundant explosive bolt sections because if the clamps didn't sever at precisely the time that the solids ignited, the solids would have ripped the launch pad out of the ground.

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Those nuts look like two sections but they are really single-piece steel with threads cut into them and they screw around the hold-down bolts. The two holes are drilled out and filled with detcord. Norminally both detcords fire and split the bolt in half at the same time the SRBs ignite, but if one fails to blow the booster will just rip it into pieces safely.

Edited by sevenperforce
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