Elon Musk's LEAKY THRUSTER gas stalls Space Station supply run Elon Musk's rocketeers at SpaceX have called off Monday's launch of their CRS-3 resupply mission to the International Space Station after a problem with its main Falcon rocket. "Today's launch has been scrubbed due to a Helium leak on Falcon 9's first stage. A fix will be implemented by the next launch opportunity on Friday …
I hope NASA commissions new launch modes for Falcon rockets: swimming-pool-slide-away and palm-tree-lie-down..
(and now I'll spend the rest of the day with the Thunderbirds music as an earworm. Come on, join in, dum---dah-dah-dum, dah-dah-dah-dum-dah-duum...)
I loved how the president of Lockheed Martin and the president of International Launch Services and the chairman of Arianespace all said "oh, that reusability stuff is a waste of time & money"
I hope Musk kicks their ass financially.
(See the last couple paras of http://spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/009/140414recovery/)
James Hughes,
I guess I'd be pretty anti-Musk if I was still selling 1960s tech rockets for 3 times the price he's charging for ones he's just developed. Profits are yummy - and he should just bugger off and leave us to it!
There's going to need to be some adaptation in this market, pretty damned quickly, or Musk is going to steal everyone's money. And good luck to him.
Good luck indeed! Go SpaceX! I've read somewhere that because Musk seem to be very good and choosing where to spend his money to make lots more money, he is expected to be the richest person on the planet in a few years time. Don't have link I'm afraid.
(OK, I admit it, I'm a bit of a fan of SpaceX and Musk...and Tesla.)
I wonder if he'll be the richest man not on the planet by then? Floating around Earth in his laser-armed space station, stroking his white cat, while simultaneously planning world domination and sending off colony ships to Mars and miners to the asteroid belt. It's nominative determinism in action.
All Hail to our laser-totin', cheese-tastic, rocket-hopping, horribly be-weaponed SpaceX overlords!
"Good luck indeed! Go SpaceX! I've read somewhere that because Musk seem to be very good and choosing where to spend his money to make lots more money, he is expected to be the richest person on the planet in a few years time. Don't have link I'm afraid."
In America I think that would be Warren Buffet, who IIRC is estimated to be about $50Bn.
Musk has a ways to go.
"How the hell did they develop a helium leak in the first stage?"My guess would be that the last test technician didn't fully close the valve after taking a lungful to do the squeeky countdown from 10. I believe that the guys here always make sure that they close the valve afterwards. (Bootnote: filling a Guiness inflatable chair with helium doesn't make it float)
"For me, that is the reason why hydrogen powered cars are perhaps a bit of a dead end. But maybe the problem can be solved somehow - we will see."
Actually the fact the compression or cooling of the H2 consumes maybe 3x the energy stored in the tank probably has more to do with it.
"For me, that is the reason why hydrogen powered cars are perhaps a bit of a dead end. But maybe the problem can be solved somehow - we will see."
If you bond the hydrogen to carbon atoms, it's much easier to handle - and much denser too.
There's twice as much hydrogen in a litre of diesel than in a litre of LH2, without all that pesky cryonics and H2 embritllement to deal with.
I'd rather have a hydrogen leak than some of the other propellants like hydrazine. At least it's effectively non-toxic (with a lower toxicity than oxygen) and disperses quickly, leak detection is probably a pain in the arse though.
Are SpaceX using LHe to cool the LO2 tanks?
"I'd rather have a hydrogen leak than some of the other propellants like hydrazine. At least it's effectively non-toxic (with a lower toxicity than oxygen) and disperses quickly, leak detection is probably a pain in the arse though."
True, although GHe is not actually a propellant.
"Are SpaceX using LHe to cool the LO2 tanks?"
No. Helium liquifies around 4K, 1/5 that of Hydrogen. Gaseous Helium is mostly used for tank pressurization (although O2 tanks can be pressurized by boiling some in a heat exchanger on the engine) and providing the driving force for activating valves.
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