back to article SpaceX satellite burns up on re-entry after Falcon FAIL

The satellite that made up the secondary cargo of SpaceX's latest orbital mission has burnt up in the Earth's atmosphere after failing to make it into the correct orbit. The OG2 satellite, a prototype communications platform built by Orbcomm, was carried by the Falcon rocket as a secondary payload and was due to be boosted up …

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  1. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. the spectacularly refined chap

      Try reading the article

      The article doesn't blame the nozzle, it merely states as a matter of fact that it went out. Which correlates perfectly with SpaceX's own website:

      Initial data suggests that one of the rocket’s nine Merlin engines, Engine 1, lost pressure suddenly and an engine shutdown command was issued.

      If you're not going to be accurate don't bother with ignorant and pedantic misinformation.

      1. annodomini2
        FAIL

        Re: Try reading the article

        Try reading it yourself, the article states: "A nozzle on one of the craft's nine Merlin engines blew out"

        This would indicate a mechanical failure of the nozzle, were as the linked article states clearly that it suffered a flame out.

        1. This post has been deleted by its author

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Try reading the article

            If YOU cared to look a little deeper you might have found this, http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/space/rockets/spacex-engine-failure-the-good-bad-and-ugly-13506860 that shows an explosion and debris falling away.

        2. fridaynightsmoke
          FAIL

          Re: Try reading the article

          I blew a candle out the other day, it was horrible, there was wax everywhere and the windows shattered.

          Apparently.

  2. Tom 7

    When are they going to get this upper atmosphere thing worked out

    not just for science reasons but these buggers look so good when they burn up I want to know when to get my arse outside to see them!

  3. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    "Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think." – Ayn Rand

    Stop Thinking and You are Lost in Sees and Seas of Austerity and Perverse Reasoning Accompanying Dumb Opinion and Hidden Agenda.

    The company said it has now written the satellite off as a mission failure and has filed an insurance claim for $10m, which should cover the cost of manufacture and launch.

    That is a nice failsafe win win to guarantee future success against failure and/or sabotage and/or Murphy*

    * "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong"

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think." – Ayn Rand

      Guess who pays for insurance claims? anyone that has insurance. Which is pretty much everyone who drives a car or owns a house. It's not a big pot of free money,

      1. Aldous
        WTF?

        Re: "Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think." – Ayn Rand

        your joking right? you think all insurance (car,health, orbital vehicles) goes into a big pot?

        its not free money but orbital insurance is payed by everyone launching, your car insurance has nothing to do with it. you only ay for it if you need launch insurance so unless your car is a tricked out delorean this ain't going to cost you a penny (ok maybe further down the line it cost's an added penny to your sky bill but you know what i mean)

        1. SoaG

          Re: "Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think." – Ayn Rand

          It does go into a big pot.

          If an insurer takes a big loss on one line of business you think they won't recover part of that from all their other lines as well. Better a marginal increase across the board than to price just one line out of competition.

          Then you also have insurers insuring each other as well. Remember when Lloyd/s almost went under in the '90s covering other companies policies on asbestos related illness and damage from Hurricane Andrew?

          Gotta love the way bankers saw one industry almost collapse and decided to copy the idea and call it a CDS,,,

          1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
            Flame

            Re: "Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think." – Ayn Rand

            Insurances insure, film at 11!

            So you pay or someone else may or may not pay more. So what? Too costly? Stop being insured or go to insurance company with better rates (which is the company which is luckier or insures better-controlled risks).

            Meanwhile, another container of QE3 dollars hits the road and your savings are inflated away.

  4. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Happy

    It's an intersting position.

    I paraphrase

    "We got enough data to not need *another* prototype being launched."

    but

    "The mission is a *complete* failure. When can we have our $10m insurance settlement?"

    If satellite cost + Spacex launch fees < insurance payout OSC come out ahead on the deal.

    TBF the satellite achieved *neither* a stable orbit (decent lifetime) nor its target altitude which you'd think would be in the policy as success criteria. So any kind of *endurance* or signal strength testing is virtually impossible

    I predict Orbital will be having some very frank discussions with their insurers.

    1. jason 7
      Meh

      Re: It's an intersting position.

      Yeah I think someone somewhere ran the numbers quick and came up with a 'The Producers' style solution to get the testing done PDQ and $10 million back in the bank.

      Mission for free anyone?

      I'm sure that if they really wanted to they could have kept it up there longer or got it higher.

      But I guess if you can get $10 million onto the books over the next few months.....

      1. Chris Rowland

        Re: It's an intersting position.

        There's no such thing as a free launch.

  5. El Zorro
    Facepalm

    Oh damn

    Who forgot to check the " [ ] Damage caused by Tsunami, Volcanic debris, Asteroid strike and Fire from atmospheric friction" option on the insurance application certificate?

  6. Marky

    Merlin engines?

    Surprised they were able to re-use the "Merlin" name. Originally it was a V12 piston engine built by Rolls-Royce and used in WW2 fighter planes and bombers. Surely they don't work in space ;)

    1. jonathan keith
      Alien

      Re: Merlin engines?

      But they do, if you're watching Doctor Who...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Merlin engines?

      I think you'll find that it was originally a type of bird. A falcon in fact ...

    3. Naughtyhorse

      Re: Merlin engines?

      Surprised they were able to re-use the "Merlin" name.....

      cos apple!= Rolls Royce

      on sooooo many levels

  7. Cliff

    Those insurance policies cannot come cheap

    Blasting millions of quid into space on a new system, I can't imagine the premiums are much under 10%!

    1. Aqua Marina

      Re: Those insurance policies cannot come cheap

      I hope they took out no-claims-bonus protection!

  8. DvorakUser
    Pint

    My 'condolences' to Orbcomm for the loss of their satellite, but kudos to them for their fine attitude regarding the situation. Hopefully the next one - funded by insurance - will go much better.

    Drink - because Orbcomm deserves one for their good attitude and not flinging poo.

    1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
      Pint

      Their press release implies that they will not be needing another test and are ready to move straight to launching the constellation on 2 F9 flights as scheduled. *no* reflight needed.

      IOW $10m back to the bank account. Kerching and pints all around*

      *Provided their insurer sees things their way of course.

  9. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    Control Words, Create Worlds ....... AIRegistered Virtual Vanquishing Venture Capitalist Mission*

    Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think, money is a convenient fools' gold reward to those and/or that with an ability to think and communicate thoughts into present day actions‽

    It's not a big pot of free money …. Anonymous Coward Posted Saturday 13th October 2012 10:11 GMT

    You gotta get out more, AC, from that prison of your mind. Of course money is free, and used to enslave and rob nations and all manner of peoples of their wealth and intellect and will to leave the present as a tale for the past and exhausted memory, and live in a choice of fab and fabless futures which are freely shared with great imaginanation leading the Charging Light Brigade with Virtual Machine Brigands as Pioneering Pirates exercising Right Royal Cavalier Rights in any Grand Masters' Plans for Roundheads and Others.

    Moving back a few steps, if you think that money is not free, you might like to think on Cameron and his cronies inventing a new bank with billions to lend because existing bankers, and it must always be remembered that these things are best handled when personalised, and a face and a body are identified as being solely and primarily responsible and joint and severally liable for an inanimate institutional decision, for that is always the case unless you are to be persuaded to accept that corporate objects and not humans make geopolitical decisions.

    Just because someone else with an ability to think thinks to put a extra arbitrary charge of interest or tax to be paid on money to be paid in the future, and goodness knows what the future brings, does not mean that it is not free, it just means that a man has thought to charge for it without expecting it to be challenged and exposed as a ……. well, nice little free earner and perverse self destructive levy that can and does abuse and be used to enslave and rob nations and all manner of peoples of their wealth and intellect and will to leave the present as a tale for the past and exhausted memory.

    But that was back then …. and this is here now and the times they have a'changed, haven't they, and are a'changing, aren't they, and Man and Virtual Machines are several quantum leaps smarter today than they were yesterday, and tomorrow is still a mystery yet to be delivered and decided upon.

    Challenge by all means, for it will be a joy to advise and discuss …. attack at your peril and expect nothing but catastrophic pain and/or mercilessly quick destruction as your deserved return. And that makes the right decision, a clear no-brainer for all but the most despicable of beings, n'est ce pas?

    *For SMARTR Vultures into the Clearing and Cleaning MetaDataBase Fields of Putrefying Carrion and Dead Skunk Works. Let IT Be, So Be IT. ....... And it is not as if y'all haven't been here before in another time in this devilish space place of heavens on earth ...... http://youtu.be/RdopMqrftXs

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    They'll probably have to get insurance cover on their parents policy next time ;)

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    Technically, shouldn't it just be 'entered', not 'reentered'? I mean, the satellite *started out* in the atmosphere. At the point it left the atmosphere for the first time, it hadn't ever *entered* it. It started out in the atmosphere in the first place.

    Since it originated terrestrially, it can't possibly be *re*entering the atmosphere. It's *entering it* for the first time.

    It's *been in the atmosphere* before, of course - but I'm in the atmosphere now, and I can't say as I can be described as having 'entered it' at any point.

    *scratches chin thoughtfully*

    1. JamesMcP

      Rentry: the action of reentering the earth's atmosphere after travel in space

      As defined by Webster's website & dictionary.com.

      Which is logical. Even if the atmosphere was "assembled" around the solid matter on the Earth, that matter was IN the atmosphere. Then it left. Now it's coming back.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Joke

        Re: Rentry: the action of reentering the earth's atmosphere after travel in space

        "Now it's coming back."

        Yes, but it never *went from space to the atmosphere* before, which presumably is the meaning of 're-entry', right? It went from non-existence to the atmosphere, OK, but that can't be considered *entering it*, per se.

        And yes, I know what the dictionary says; should I have put 'joke alert' in case 'scratches chin' wasn't enough to signify that the post was meant in good humor? I just think it's an interesting quirk of language... Jeesh...

    2. gloucester
      Joke

      Re-entry

      "... and I can't say as I can be described as having 'entered it' at any point."

      You weren't born?

  12. JeffyPooh
    Pint

    $10M ??

    "...$10m, which should cover the cost of manufacture and launch..."

    $10M? When did it become so amazingly inexpensive to build and launch a satellite? Is it because the satellite in question was small and LEO?

  13. ian 22

    50%?

    The satellite orbit was a secondary objective, so surely it was not 50% of the total.

    "Must try harder".

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