Twice a Falcon 9 rocket has exploded. Once was while it was refueling on the ground, and the other was shortly after take-off. It is a long time ago. On 28 June 2015, a Falcon 9 experienced a so-called RUD 149 seconds after take-off. The rocket and payload were totally destroyed. The reason was a pressure bottle that struggled to come loose. RUD: Everything breaks at breakneck speed without being planned. It happened with this Falcon 9 rocket in 2015. Photo: SpaceX On September 1, 2016, another Falcon 9 exploded. It happened on the launch pad while filling with liquid fuel. The rocket was not supposed to fly, it was supposed to test the engines. The cause of the accident was ignition of the cladding around a pressure cylinder. Before the last explosion, SpaceX had carried out 25 successful launches of this type of rocket. The last launch was on Wednesday. The number has now increased to 225. TWO HUNDRED TIMES: A Falcon 9 rises from the launch pad in California on Wednesday morning Norwegian time. With this record, Elon Musk and SpaceX got a new record. Photo: SpaceX This means that there have now been 200 successful launches of the Falcon 9 rocket in a row. The closest competitors are the Russian Soyuz with a hundred in a row and the American Delta II also with a hundred. That makes Falcon 9 the safest space rocket ever, explains space travel expert Eric Berger. SAFE ENOUGH FOR NASA: On Wednesday morning, four astronauts landed with the Dragon spacecraft. They were launched with a Falcon 9. Photo: AP Dominating SpaceX now dominates the international launch market. When Elon Musk founded the company in 2002, the goal was to make rockets that could be used multiple times, he has told news. That way, launches could be cheaper for customers. He made it happen. SMALL GANG: The staff of SpaceX in 2002. The band was not part of the staff. The photo was taken six years before the first successful launches. Photo: SpaceX The rocket that ascended into space on Wednesday morning was out on its 14th trip. It has now landed safely on Earth again. SpaceX carried out 61 launches last year. Everyone else in the world in this industry contributed a total of 32 launches combined. STARLINK: A Ukrainian soldier sets up an antenna for the SpaceX communications system. At all times there are Starlink satellites over Ukraine. Photo: CLODAGH KILCOYNE / Reuters A large proportion of the capacity of SpaceX is now being used to build up Starlink, the company states. Starlink is a communications system owned by SpaceX. Starlink offers broadband through satellites. There are now more than 4,000 such satellites in orbit around the Earth, according to figures from Norad. WILL BE MUCH MORE: Map showing Starlink satellites over Europe at 09:14 Thursday 1 June 2023. SpaceX’s goal is for there to be ten times more satellites in orbit. Photo: Satellitemap Enough bang for most SpaceX’s rockets have not stopped exploding. There are other rockets that now end with RUD. ALMOST GOOD: A Starship explodes after a landing that was too hard. Photo: SpaceX Elon Musk has several times described how the company operates. They build many rockets at a rapid pace. They take great risks during testing. The fact that a rocket explodes does not spoil the pace and they learn a lot. TESTED TO DESTRUCTION: Technology demonstrator Grasshopper explodes. Photo: SpaceX The last big blow for the company came when they were to test the new vessel Starship on 20 April. TO BE COMPLETELY DESTROYED: Starship stands ready for what would prove to be a four-minute long life. Photo: SPACEX / Reuters It ended with a total loss of the launch vehicle and spacecraft. In addition, much of the equipment on the ground was damaged, Elon Musk has said. DID NOT SURVIVE: A camera that was set up at what the photographer thought was a safe distance from the launch platform. It turned out not to be true. Photo: JOE SKIPPER / Reuters Until Starship works satisfactorily, the Falcon 9 and big brother Falcon Heavy will be the workhorses of SpaceX. This can last for many years. The road ahead for Starship is long. Bumps in the ground A lot went wrong during the testing of Starship in April. SpaceX has not told about everything. What has been communicated publicly by Elon Musk are four significant errors: The rocket destroyed the ground under the launch pad. The gas from the engines dug out a large hole. Concrete, stone, earth and sand from this hole were thrown at high speed towards the ground equipment and caused damage. The launch ramp is now being rebuilt with water-cooled steel plates to cope with the pressure from the engines. Eight of the engines stopped working. The launch vehicle is equipped with 33 engines, and can cope with the loss of any of these. Three of the engines did not start at all, and another five fell out over the next few minutes. The rocket experienced a catastrophic failure of hydraulics. The generator that was supposed to provide pressurized hydraulic fluid stopped working. This meant that the engines could not change angle. The rocket had no way to steer and ended up spinning. The system that was supposed to ensure that the rocket exploded in a safe way if something went wrong did not work satisfactorily. These are explosives that will cut holes in the fuel tanks and thereby lead to detonation. It took 40 seconds from when the system was triggered until the rocket exploded. Elon Musk announced on May 27 that the next attempt would come in two months. The ground equipment, spacecraft and launch vehicle will have significant changes compared to the system that was tested in April. There is still a lot that can still go wrong, Elon Musk has said.
ttn-69
SpaceX with 200 successful Falcon 9 launches in a row – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
