Antares launch/failure discussion.

[Kulebron]

Catastrophic burnthrough of the turbopump. Book it.

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g13/GoSlash27/Antaresfailure_zpsa0966f3a.jpg

-Slashy

Why did this flash stop in a fraction of second, and how a destroyed turbopump allowed +/- nominal thrust?

[Vanamonde]

The three threads on today's incident have been merged.

[merendel]

From my armchair and amatuer opinion it looks like something was leaking from the top of the booster stage when it was ignited. then the booster went Ka-Bloowy leaving the upper stages with nothing to go up with. It went down and destroyed the launchpad.

Waiting for someone to Blame Obama, and then call for NASA's budget to be cut to nothing to prevent this kind of waste.

Hope ISS has enough supplies until the next one. I heard the canned borcht is the food of last resort.

*Chuckle* I blame Obama for lots of things wrong with the country in general but can't come up with any even remotely plausible stretch of logic that would result in him being responsible for a rocket explosion Whatever his faults he's not some omnipresent gremlin able to inflict mechanical faults in systems from infinite range.

I doubt they run the supplies to the ISS on short enough margins for one failed launch to seriously endanger things however. Space travel is risky and the planers had to expect delivery delays and the occasional failed launch.

[Kryten]

As it happens, the next supply launch is in about seven hours. I doubt they'll starve in the interim.

[Hydrazine_Soup]

Wow

Edited March 5, 2020 by Hydrazine_Soup

[DerpenWolf]

As it happens, the next supply launch is in about seven hours. I doubt they'll starve in the interim.

Who is launching it? Whats the rocket?

[Hydrazine_Soup]

Who is launching it? Whats the rocket?

Russian Progress cargo ship

[RocketPilot573]

What exactly was in the rocket again? I know it was an ISS resupply.

Esc -> Revert Flight -> Revert to VAB -> MOAR Struts! MOAR Boosters! -> Launch

[bigred]

Check out the video:

NASA's Resupply mission to the ISS goes awry.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/nasa-s-antares-rocket-explodes-shortly-after-launch-1.2816259

[lajoswinkler]

I thought the Antares was RP-1/LOX for the first stage and an aluminum based SRB on the second? Probably shouldn't have said SRB but instead the solid fuel upper stage engine

Whoops, I guess my source got it wrong. My bad for not checking.

Also

http://www.space.com/27571-astronaut-crab-cakes-space-delivery.html

Looks like someone isn't getting their crab cakes.

But seriously, I wonder how the crew on the ISS are feeling?

kyled1142 (signed in using yahoo)

Hope you like your crab cakes well-done.

How are they feeling? Hungry.

[Kryten]

Who is launching it? Whats the rocket?

Progress-M-52M, first Progress flight with Soyuz 2.1a.

[KASA Space]

The Antares 130, carrying the Cygnus spacecraft to the ISS, encountered an anomaly 6 seconds after launch.

No one was hurt, and everyone is accounted for.

Thoughts?

[sedativechunk]

Hey guys I heard what happened with this. Yesterday they were supposed to launch but a sailboat got too close to the launch. The officials then re-loaded their quicksave today and forgot that their staging was messed up at launch after leaving the VAB. They accidentally activated the second stage stack decoupler at launch and the rocket wobbled. "We even added additional struts" a NASA official said.

[ZedNova]

There's a million of these threads already. Check out the space lounge for the main one.

[Kryten]

NASA are broadcasting a briefing on the flight here 'momentarily'.

EDIT: Live Now.

Edited October 29, 2014 by Kryten

[RamboRoth]

Its a shame all of that science equipment was lost. Looking forward to seeing the Soyuz launch tonight though.

[Drunken Hobo]

I suppose one more reason why there's no one there yet is hydrazine. There had to be some of it aboard. It's better to let it evaporate from the site before sending HAZMAT-suited folks.

Watching the cloud advance over the NASA Social guys did make me think of that. I wonder how much hydrazine was in it, I imagine just for manoeuvring as the rocket runs on kerosene.

Don't think it'll be as bad as the Proton rocket last year, which basically runs on two forms of liquid poison. Hundreds of tonnes of the stuff.

[FishInferno]

Esc -> Revert Flight -> Revert to VAB -> MOAR Struts! MOAR Boosters! -> Launch

I love the smell of burning rocket fuel in the morning

[Franklin]

all the folks speculating on how much money the guy in the sail boat wasted on monday must be tuggin their collars now

[Franklin]

if i were him i'd use the "it was clearly a piece of [snip] to begin with" defense when he contests that safety ticket

Edited October 29, 2014 by Vanamonde

[Motokid600]

if i were him i'd use the "it was clearly a piece of [snip] to begin with" defense when he contests that safety ticket

Lol, It didn't take me long to wonder.. Would this have happened last night?

Edited October 29, 2014 by Vanamonde

[FishInferno]

wow, its even on WEATHER.COM http://www.weather.com/

- - - Updated - - -

just because it blew up, everybody talks

[FishInferno]

Lol, It didn't take me long to wonder.. Would this have happened last night?

Probably because I dont see how sitting overnight would break some part of the rocket

[Tiberion]

We'll likely never know, but there are scenarios where the overnight wait could be a contributing factor - if it were a failure in or near one of the fuel valves or regulators then any extended pressurization or fueling/defueling could have stressed the part into failure.

Lots of other failure points probably would have occurred either way.

Again, its just an intellectual exercise; but if the delay did affect it, our intrepid boat captain could face more consequences. At the very least, he should probably be thankful they did halt the launch to protect him - maybe the failure occurs differently one day earlier and it lands on him?

In any event, its a huge mess.

[Motokid600]

Probably because I dont see how sitting overnight would break some part of the rocket

Which actually brings me to the question I forgot to ask. What exactly happens after they abort like they did last night? The next window was obviously 24 hours away so.. the rocket just stayed as is? They didn't have to defuel it or freeze some of the timed cargo?