Explosion rocks SpaceX launch site in Florida during test

[Pete]

Explosion rocks SpaceX launch site in Florida during test

September 01, 2016 - Morning


CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla

[mikaluch]

SpaceX has done some wondrous things in a very short time but they are not nearly ready for manned spaceflight.

[Pete]

Out and about this morning I heard that the satellite did get damaged; but no one got hurt.

[randy]

The rocket and the satellite were destroyed. Facebook is out a $195 million satellite.

[mikaluch]

The insurance companies are out $195 million plus the cost of the launch plus usually the first year's projected revenues. Once they tack the upped insurance rates onto SpaceX launches their small cost advantage will be gone. They can't even tell us what the loads will be on the satellite during a nominal launch. They have been teetering on the brink of disaster with minor problems in almost every launch. If you are SpaceX you might think that is skill. Everyone learns eventually in this business.

[Uncle Michael]

There are only a few governments capable of "reliable" rocket launches, and the total spending to get there has been (pardon the expression) astronomical. Learning how to do it at low cost is going to be expensive.

[vasrc]

The rocket and the satellite were destroyed. Facebook is out a $195 million satellite.

I'm thinking the rocket just couldn't reconcile having to carry a Facebook satellite, so the only option it had left was to self destruct.
Smart rocket....

Z

[vasrc]

On a related issue, Wallops Flight center here in VA has repaired the launch facility damage from it's last explosion and should be sending an Antares up the second half of Sept. Might have to make that. The last explosion we could hear/see and we're about 200 miles away..

http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/go...t-nasa-wallops

Z

[Pete]

Facebook is out a $195 million satellite.

Just a drop in the bucket for Facebook.

Personally here do not Tweet nor am I a member of Facebook.

[Pete]

Really it is just piss poor quality control with money as no object to tinkering with the space program.

Kind of joke these days as it is the norm now a days to accept this **** as it generates revenue and that is the bottom line more than anything else these days.

[mikaluch]

The majority of the savings being realized by the "new space" businesses is eliminating the extensive component prescreening and system testing that the "old space" businesses have come to view as mandatory. The new space businesses are a double-edged sword. They are changing the business at a previously unheard of pace. The traditional players are at a loss. If we don't cut back on the quality control we can't compete. If we do the failure rate will go up.

What the new guys do not realize is that we aren't competing with each other. We are competing with fiber and you never read about spectacular explosions at fiber optics installations. The same thing happened in the late 90s, the last time a number of planned LEO constellations shook up the traditional GEO market. Prices were driven down and then multiple in orbit failures led to a shift in the fiber/RF ratio. Remember "faster, better, cheaper"?

[Pete]

Just an article this morning on the BBC.

Musk: SpaceX fireball probe uncovering 'complex failure'
Friday, 9th of September, 2016 5:30 AM C time

An investigation into how a SpaceX rocket exploded is uncovering a "difficult and complex failure", the firm's founder Elon Musk has said.

Mr Musk tweeted that the explosion of Falcon 9 during a routine filling operation was the most complicated in the space travel firm's history.

He said that the engines weren't on and there was "no apparent heat source".

The rocket's payload, a satellite on which Facebook had leased capacity, was destroyed in the explosion last week.

"Still working on the Falcon fireball investigation. Turning out to be the most difficult and complex failure we have ever had in 14 years," Mr Musk tweeted.

Facebook, with Eutelsat Communications, had been due to use the Amos-6 satellite for broadband internet coverage for parts of sub-Saharan Africa as part of Facebook's Internet.org initiative.

The force of the blast at Cape Canaveral shook buildings several miles away.

Mr Musk tweeted that support for the SpaceX investigation by Nasa, the US Federal Aviation Administration, and the US Air Force was "much appreciated".

The technology entrepreneur owns and leads SpaceX. Mr Musk is also chief executive of electric car company Tesla Motors and chairman of solar energy firm SolarCity.

Side comment here: unrelated / relating to OP ....for years now been listening to the BBS more than domestic news broadcasts and noticed recently hearing some major opinionated news (news with a slant of sorts) rather than just plain old news which is something that is a bit unusual. I prefer news with out opinions; but that is me.

[Uncle Michael]

. . .noticed recently [on BBC] hearing some major opinionated news (news with a slant of sorts) rather than just plain old news which is something that is a bit unusual. I prefer news with out opinions; but that is me.

Pete,
I totally agree. Opinions are not news as far as I'm concerned. Just curious, though, where do you find one without the other? I cannot find any source that doesn't color their 'news' with opinions.

[AshaiRey]

When looking at the video footage did you noticed the heat that was coming of the explosion? Have a look at the 2 towers in front of the rocket that are at reasonable distance. You could see their tops vapourise by the heat.