Elon Musk, founder and president of SpaceX, said that the company was able to identify the source of the fire that caused the explosion of the Falcon 9 launcher two months ago and the destruction of the Israeli communication satellite Amos 6. According to Musk, the company will be able to resume operations in mid-December.
In an interview with CNBC A few days ago, Musk briefly said that the malfunction "involves a combination of liquid helium, an advanced composite carbon material, and solid oxygen, oxygen so cold that it enters a solid state. This has never happened before in history, which is why it took us so long to figure it out... it was the hardest puzzle we had to solve... but it looks like we'll be able to get back on track around mid-December."
the fault, she lied on September 1 and resulted in the explosion of the Falcon 9 launcher and the Israeli Amos 6 satellite mounted on top of it, happened while the launcher was being refueled in preparation for a test burn, two days before the actual launch.
in a previous message SpaceX reported that the company was able to target the source of the malfunction to one of the three helium tanks located inside the liquid oxygen tank in the upper stage of the launcher. The helium is responsible for maintaining the pressure inside the tank during the rocket burning of the upper stage. The company also said that it was able to reproduce the malfunction in the experiments it carried out.
Although Musk did not elaborate on the source of the malfunction, it can be learned from his words that the malfunction apparently happened while refueling the liquid oxygen tank, which for some reason became so cold that it froze, and an interaction between it and the complex carbonaceous material that covers the helium tanks She brought for starting a fire that caused an explosion.
SpaceX fuels the launcher with liquid oxygen cooled to a temperature of 206 degrees Celsius below zero. This temperature is 40 degrees lower than other launchers that use liquid oxygen. The lower temperature makes the liquid oxygen denser, which improves the launcher's performance. SpaceX has started using "super-cooled" liquid oxygen in the new version of the Falcon 9 machine Falcon 9 Full Thrust, which entered service after The previous fault which the company had to deal with, in the explosion that destroyed the missile on June 28, 2015.
Oxygen becomes a solid at a temperature of 218 degrees Celsius below zero. Since Musk also mentioned in his words "liquid helium", which becomes liquid at a temperature of 268 degrees below zero, In a report by the New York Times The possibility is raised that he is the factor that froze part of the liquid oxygen.
The explosion of the launcher on September 1 reinforces concerns raised in the past about how the launcher is fueled during manned launches. SpaceX has an agreement with NASA, under which it plans to launch its improved Dragon spacecraft using the Falcon 9 launcher, which will be able to fly NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.
Since the company uses "super-cooled" oxygen, it is forced to refuel near the launch, and therefore in the case of a manned launch, the astronauts will be forced to stay inside the spacecraft mounted on the launcher during the refueling. Such a method has not been tried before in manned launches, where refueling is done earlier and before the astronauts and other crew members are near the launcher.
In December of last year, the head of the advisory committee to NASA on issues related to the International Space Station, warned and wrote that the new method "contradicts the criterion of launcher safety which has existed for over 50 years, both in this country and around the world". NASA responded to the letter and said: "Spacecraft and spacecraft intended for the commercial crew launch program must meet NASA's safety and technical requirements before the agency will qualify them for crew launch... NASA continues its evaluation of SpaceX's Falcon refueling concept 9 for commercial launch of crews. The results of the investigation of the company's failure on September 1st will be incorporated into this assessment."
Comments
my father
Can you please give one example of a government covering up a UFO case?
I am not asking for "thousands of cases". One case is enough for me to understand that you don't tell stories.
Oh, and that it be from a reliable source…. And not some Bugz Bunny video...
He didn't do anything, it was a bird flying in the background
Also, the UFO could cause the oxygen to freeze or make the explosion by itself anyway no one will ask questions and NASA and the USA will cover it up like in thousands of other UFO cases
It still doesn't explain what an unidentified object was doing around the most advanced satellite in the world, it passed there twice before the Fitznets
Right above it during the explosion and went up after the explosion, so even if I accept this explanation (frozen oxygen, let's say) it doesn't explain what the hell the UFO was doing there.
The guy with dreams deserves a mention. The dream seems too difficult to me. I think it's good that there are dreamers like him.