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back to article Orion Space shuttle wannabe preps again for test flight

NASA’s Orion is fuelling up once again for its second day of attempted launches for its first ever test flight. The space shuttle successor was due to blast off yesterday, Thursday, but the take off was scrubbed after a number of attempts over the two-and-a-half-hour launch window were nixed. A boat in the red zone caused the …

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  1. Stanislaw
    Boffin

    Idle curiosity

    Because I am not a rocket scientist, I wonder how many times you can fill & empty the tanks on one of these things before the repeated contraction & expansion degrades something to the point where it's no longer flight-worthy.

    Or once on the pad, do they keep the tanks cold all the time (not full - just cold) to prevent such a thing?

    1 0 Reply
    1. Andrew Newstead
      Reply Icon

      Re: Idle curiosity

      You are right, there is a limit to continued fuelling/defueling but this applies to consecutive attempts to launch. If this flight attempt does not happen today then they will have to wait 3 or 4 days before they try again to allow the rocket's tanks to settle down, I believe that NASA did say Sunday or Monday. Surprisingly Aluminium tanks are fairly forgiving of this kind of treatment and can be used for quite a lot of such cycles before being considered scrap. The main issue would be metal fatigue due to the cycling. This is the problem that did for the early Comet airliners but they have the addition of square corner windows which exacerbated the problem. Once this had been solved we now see Aluminium tubes (airliners) being cycled many times a day without failure and can have cycle numbers going into 10's of thousands.

      2 0 Reply
      1. BristolBachelor Gold badge
        Reply Icon

        Re: Idle curiosity

        I believe that the valves need to be re-serviced after 3 attempts, but I am not too involved in that end of the rocket - my stuff is at the top.

        2 0 Reply
        1. Andrew Newstead
          Reply Icon
          Pint

          Re: Idle curiosity

          Up vote for working in the biz!

          0 0 Reply
  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    but wait!

    There's [1] an attack ship [2] off the shoulder [3] of Orion!

    [1] There might be (again)

    [2] an ordinary boat (again)

    [3] aka "in the exclusion zone" (again)

    nb: should have posted this yesterday...

    1 0 Reply
    1. DropBear
      Reply Icon

      Re: but wait!

      ...but thankfully, at least there's not a c-beam in sight. There is rain, though...

      1 0 Reply
  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    5.....4.....3.....2.....WHOA!! Abort, Abort, Abort....

    ....It's too sunny to launch!

    0 0 Reply
  4. toxicdragon

    NOTAMs

    I know there are NOTAMs in place for this, although it just said "closed" but I guess you can infer what that means from the location, what is there in place for the boats? I would assume some kind of marker or radio signal maybe but I don't actually know, can anyone offer advice?

    0 0 Reply
    1. SkippyBing
      Reply Icon

      Re: NOTAMs

      You can also have Notices to Mariners, and there's generally a broadcast on channel 16 giving details of the danger area from a few hours beforehand, certainly that’s what happens for high seas firings when warships are testing their weapons systems.

      1 0 Reply
      1. toxicdragon
        Reply Icon

        Re: NOTAMs

        Did not know about those, thanks

        0 0 Reply
  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "The Boat in the Red Zone is for loading and unloading only."

    "There is no parking in the Red Zone"

    4 0 Reply
    1. Uncle Slacky Silver badge
      Reply Icon
      Thumb Up

      Re: "The Boat in the Red Zone is for loading and unloading only."

      'Don't start with that "red zone, white zone" bullshit - we both know what this is REALLY about - you want me to get an abortion!'

      Apparently voiced by the actual people who recorded the real announcements at LAX, too...

      4 0 Reply
  6. ravenviz Silver badge
    Mushroom

    "fuel valve that refused to close properly"

    Luckily this can only happen on the launch pad.

    0 0 Reply
    1. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: "fuel valve that *refused* to close properly"

      > Luckily this can only happen on the launch pad.

      You sure?

      " I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that"

      1 0 Reply
    2. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
      Reply Icon
      Joke

      Re: "fuel valve that refused to close properly"

      At least the valve is not sulking in basements, as our elevators have been doing lately. Should never have gone for the Sirius Cybernetics model

      3 0 Reply
      1. TitterYeNot
        Reply Icon
        Coat

        Re: "fuel valve that refused to close properly"

        "Should never have gone for the Sirius Cybernetics model"

        I think you'd also sit in a basement sulking if you were a precognisant lift and knew -

        A) What depressingly crap 'song' was at number one for Christmas 2014 and

        B) Which idiots were in charge after the 2015 UK general election...

        0 0 Reply
  7. Charles Smith

    Don't worry about the rain.

    Any good survivalist store can supply waterproof matches. Should be easy to light the blue touchpaper and run.

    0 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Rain Stopped Play

      It's just not cricket, old boy...

      0 0 Reply
      1. Tom 13
        Reply Icon

        Re: It's just not cricket, old boy...

        No, no. Cricket is a lighter! (for $1.49) You definitely want matches for this.

        0 0 Reply
  8. Terje
    Joke

    All this being careful and aborting for any small reason really has to stop, there needs to put Jebediah Kerman in charge, then there will be a launch as long as the rocket is still standing on the pad! Be it leaky fuel tanks or hurricane winds!

    1 0 Reply
  9. Billa Bong

    Comms? Go. Nav? Go. Control? ...

    Control? ... Dammit, Abort. Control are at the pub.

    0 0 Reply

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