SpaceX's Falcon 9R test rocket just blew up.

[Javster]

To be fair, I imagine a boom is the single most effective method for separating capsules from rockets.

Just like sitting on explosives is the most efficient way of travelling in multiple directions at once.

[Loligoat]

I hope the accident is caused by something unique to 9R.

Well it isn't THE 9R, it's an experimental version of it. But still, I hope they figure out what went wrong.

[lajoswinkler]

I've heard a reporter saying

. So stupid, so, so stupid.

[NovaSilisko]

Failure was caused by something that would've been caught in a normal F9 setup. Has no effect on the regular Falcon 9.

[Brotoro]

I unleashed some google-fu on the web and found many news sites with this story. But to my surprise when I checked http://www.spacex.com/ I found literally nothing anywhere closely related to this CATO (Catastrophe At Take-Off).

"Cato" is not an acronym. That was made up years later by people who didn't know 'cato' is just short for 'catastrophic failure'.

[WestAir]

I think that would result in the capsule disintegrating along with the rocket. We want the capsule to stay intact, and destroy the wayward rocket before it hits something important, which is why the current abort procedure is used.

Just like sitting on explosives is the most efficient way of travelling in multiple directions at once.

I was joking.

[astropapi1]

"Elon was a little upset about that. If you don’t crash the thing, you’re not pushing it hard enough.â€Â

I love that dude. He's like the Iron Man of the real world.

[Alpheratz]

In the video it looks like the engines shut down before the FTS engaged. Did SpaceX try to stop then re-ignite the engines in flight? Or was this part of the FTS?

[okan170]

Part of the FTS. Modern liquid FTS systems shut off the engines, then about a second later unzip the tanks with high-explosive. The actual explosion takes place a bit after that as a useful side-effect in that it spends a lot more energy all dispersed in the air than in one concentrated boom. (Still nasty, but slightly less messy to clean up.)

This kind of shutdown is actually mentioned as part of the Commercial Crew proposals as an important part of the LAS as it gives the crew even more time to escape in the event of an abort. This goes for both Atlas and Falcon.

[Armchair Rocket Scientist]

Something I'm curious about: just how big are the explosive charges used in a flight termination system? I know that the rocket completely disintegrates, and in vehicles with SRBs fragments of propellant are flung away from the explosion at fairly high velocity, but how much of that is from the charges themselves and how much is from the fuel all burning at once / being flung away by its own combustion pressure when the tanks/casing are opened?

To put it another way, if a rocket was sitting on the ground with its tanks full of something inert like water and the FTS fired, how much damage would it actually do?

[shynung]

The FTS, or sometimes called range safety system, is a long block of shaped-charge explosive designed to cut open the side of a rocket, in order to disperse its propellants. Usually, the propellant then blows up following the FTS, disintegrating the rocket.

If a liquid-fuel rocket sitting on a pad, its propellant tanks filled with water, was to have its FTS fired, the tank would be split open by the explosive along one side, and all the water would gush out.

Edited August 24, 2014 by shynung

[Twreed87]

KSP needs some system like this. I've always wanted to just blow my rockets up in mid-air.

[cantab]

Many players don't need much help doing that

But as ever, there's a mod for it. I forget which though.

[weeble]

TacSelfDestruct is the mod you're thinking of.

[WestAir]

Many players don't need much help doing that

But as ever, there's a mod for it. I forget which though.

TacSelfDestruct is the mod you're thinking of.

Which will become useful when Squad allows rockets to damage the spaceport buildings and structures. If they're still planning to do that.

[shynung]

I don't think it would matter if it did. KSC is right next to an ocean to the east. Since people generally do their gravity turn eastward, to take advantage of Kerbin's rotation, their rockets would fly over open waters.

[magnemoe]

I don't think it would matter if it did. KSC is right next to an ocean to the east. Since people generally do their gravity turn eastward, to take advantage of Kerbin's rotation, their rockets would fly over open waters.

yes however in KSP most wait until they are many kilometers up in the air before starting the gravity turn. Mechjeb uses around 7 as default.

We also drop stages early, the trashcans burn out at a couple of kilometers attitude.

More the VAB is just a bit over hundred meter from the pad, in real world it would be many kilometers.

[WestAir]

I don't think it would matter if it did. KSC is right next to an ocean to the east. Since people generally do their gravity turn eastward, to take advantage of Kerbin's rotation, their rockets would fly over open waters.

Personally my gravity turns take place above 10km because my rockets spin out of control if I attempt them earlier. Every stage I drop before then will land right back on the launchpad or worse, hit one of the KSC buildings.

[cpast]

I don't think it would matter if it did. KSC is right next to an ocean to the east. Since people generally do their gravity turn eastward, to take advantage of Kerbin's rotation, their rockets would fly over open waters.

So is Kennedy, yet NASA uses range safety systems to protect things on the ground against malfunctioning rockets.

[bigdad84]

Musk also revealed the cause of Friday’s rocket failure – an issue involving a blocked sensor port.

Looks like we have our answer!

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2014/08/27/spacex-delays-falcon-9-launch-to-re-evaluate-its-systems/

[xman1]

Needs more struts.

This cracked me up! How did this not get any comments?

-X

[How2FoldSoup]

I love that dude. He's like the Iron Man of the real world.

Fun fact: Tony Stark's character was based off of Elon Musk and Musk has a cameo in Iron man 2

Pay attention to the audio for fun inside jokes

[Kryten]

I don't think it would matter if it did. KSC is right next to an ocean to the east. Since people generally do their gravity turn eastward, to take advantage of Kerbin's rotation, their rockets would fly over open waters.

If a rocket is malfunctioning badly enough to consider blowing it up, you can't assume it's going to be flying in the right direction.

[B787_300]

Fun fact: Tony Stark's character was based off of Elon Musk and Musk has a cameo in Iron man 2

uuuuuum ironman the character was around LONG before Elon Musk... so no Iron Man/Tony Stark were not based off of Elon, rather the modern incarnations were given Elon Like attributes

[sojourner]

Fun fact: Tony Stark's character was based off of Elon Musk and Musk has a cameo in Iron man 2

Nope. Tony Stark was a drunk before Elon Musk was old enough to drive. Elon gets compared to Tony for doing cool stuff, but in no way was Tony "inspired by".