Rocket engineering level = SpaceX

[FigureFive]

It turns out the Falcon9 that launched last night to send a Dragon capsule full of supplies to the ISS lost an engine. Not lost like the engine simply fizzled out. Lost like BOOM! Yet the safety measures engineered into the rocket kept the other engines protected and functional for a successful launch.

If you ask me designing and building a rocket that can survive an exploding engine is pretty damn impressive.

http://arstechnica.com/science/2012/...ines-exploded/

Explosion is at :27 into the video

[PickleZygote]

Holy hell, pretty impressive. I assume by successful launch the rocket was still able to put Dragon into orbit?

[dubfan]

Engine didn't explode. Engine was shutdown for reasons still unknown; dumped fuel due to shutdown created excess pressure inside an engine fairing; fairing came apart. Engine continued to transmit telemetry throughout.

2nd stage engine had to burn longer as a result, and put secondary payload into too low an orbit. Maybe recoverable -- or maybe not -- no one's talking yet.

Rest of mission ok, so far.

[feels_road]

Due to an anomaly on one of the Falcon 9’s first-stage engines, the rocket did not comply with a pre-planned International Space Station (ISS) safety gate to allow it to execute the second burn. For this reason, the OG2 prototype satellite was deployed into an orbit that was lower than intended. Orbcomm and Sierra Nevada Corp. engineers have been in contact with the satellite and are working to determine if and the extent to which the orbit can be raised to an operational orbit using the satellite’s on-board propulsion system.

Orbcomm's statement came after satellite-watcher Jonathan McDowell called attention to the fact that the satellite showed up in the Space-Track database as having a 203-by-323-kilometer orbit rather than the planned 350-by-750-kilometer orbit.

That seems way too much of a difference to be resolved with the typically puny satellite propulsion systems.

[personman]

That seems way too much of a difference to be resolved with the typically puny satellite propulsion systems.

It probably is too far, but a little burn can go a long way. Ever played Kerbal Space Program?

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/



It's fun playing around with the physics of putting something in orbit.

[dubfan]

That seems way too much of a difference to be resolved with the typically puny satellite propulsion systems.

Yep.

It's in the drink.

Marcia Smith (@SpcPlcyOnline) on Twitter:

Meanwhile, ORBCOMM confirms its OG2 sat has reentered after Flcn 9 left it in wrong orbit. Puts brave face on it; say they did get eng data.

[feels_road]

Yeah, it really was only half way to target, and with that eccentricity touching down into dense regions - what a drag.