SpaceX Falcon 9 launch - Jason 3 - Vandenberg

[RDoc]

More prosaically, the de-icing procedures that aircraft go through ought to be easy to incorporate. Squirting a mess of de-icing fluid into the critical parts in the moments before their deployment should be straightforward enough...unless such could cause a disruption in maintaining the perfect trajectory??????

I'm not so sure that would work. Because of the extreme cold of the upper atmosphere ~-40C I suspect the ice would be very hard, unlike the ~0C slush and freezing rain deicing is generally used on. It may actually be colder than that if the ice is formed by chilled air falling off the oxygen tank prior to launch.

Maybe some sort of deicing fluid sprayed on the critical parts while the vehicle is sitting on the pad waiting for launch would keep the ice from forming in the first place if it's not too cold. I'm sure they will be checking the temperature around the moving parts pretty carefully in the near future.

 

[doug]

Once more for good measure.

 

[freds]

Maybe some sort of deicing fluid sprayed on the critical parts while the vehicle is sitting on the pad waiting for launch would keep the ice from forming in the first place if it's not too cold. I'm sure they will be checking the temperature around the moving parts pretty carefully in the near future.

I would image we will see dry air ducting in the area in the future, maybe a nitrogen feed off of the LOX chiller equipment.

 

[Skotty]

Sorry I didn't put more effort into the artwork...

 

[chickensevil]

Sorry I didn't put more effort into the artwork...

View attachment 108642

This. Is. AWESOME! And totally true! Do you mind if I post this to facebook? haha!

 

[doug]

I like that it includes Waldo.

 

[HVM]

Ah, engines only recovery a'la ULA, without giant helicopters and stuff...

http://imgur.com/a/WMmFd

 

[evp]

Ah, engines only recovery a'la ULA, without giant helicopters and stuff...
View attachment 108702
http://imgur.com/a/WMmFd

Good point, the engines are worth a lot more than the tanks. Considering they test-fired the engines from the first landing with only one minor problem, I wonder if they will test these and try re-flying them (at least the ones that didn't impact the barge during the upset.)

 

[HankLloydRight]

Is it me, or did the rocket seem to explode just before it actually hit the deck?

The upper section exploded first at a degree or two above the deck, then the lower section combusted.

I wonder what caused it to explode right before it hit the deck surface. Are there any other video angles of the landing?

 

[HVM]

Maybe one of the gridfins or failed leg structure pierce tank(s) before main body hit the deck. Or it hit some of the Droneship equipments.

 

[Grendal]

Is it me, or did the rocket seem to explode just before it actually hit the deck?

The upper section exploded first at a degree or two above the deck, then the lower section combusted.

I wonder what caused it to explode right before it hit the deck surface. Are there any other video angles of the landing?

Watching the video a whole bunch of times, I get your point. It looks to me that the upper containment bottle pops and mostly gas escapes, followed immediately by the lower containment bottle rupturing which is right next to the hot/still flaming rocket nozzles. That ignites both sets of gasses and you get the big boom. The upper bottle rupturing can be for any number of reasons. Possibly, the leg buckling and the rigid leg punctures into the thin body causing an inner fuel line to sever or bind causing a rapid pressure increase into the upper containment bottle. You can get into some hairy guesswork in watching a cascade of failure leading to destruction.

It's funny but this is exactly how there are websites dedicated to conspiracy theories are created. You get to see something being destroyed (or an incident) and in the process see something confusing. Someone else looking at the same thing will come to some wild conclusions based on little data. There are people that watch the video of one of the twin towers collapsing and come to the conclusion that it was demolished on purpose because they can see the windows being blown out below where the collapse is occurring.

I'm not saying you are trying to do this, Hank. Your comment just reminded me of that.

 

[rabar10]

Is it me, or did the rocket seem to explode just before it actually hit the deck?

The upper section exploded first at a degree or two above the deck, then the lower section combusted.

I wonder what caused it to explode right before it hit the deck surface. Are there any other video angles of the landing?

There is a single frame in that video that shows a small white cloud around the landing gear that was being folded back onto the side of the rocket as it fell. That was the first puncture point, and from there the lower 'tank' with residual RP1 (kerosene) burst.

Almost immediately afterwards (same frame in the video), the upper tank with residual LOX (liquid and gaseous oxygen) burst as well -- before it actually made contact with the deck surface. The two tanks share a common bulkhead separating them, so when one suddenly loses pressure and structural rigidity in a pretty violent way, it makes sense that the other goes as well. The fireball near the bottom of the rocket is the residual cloud of kerosene being ignited, likely from heat/flames still present from the center Merlin engine just shutting down a few seconds before.

 

[ggr]

If you've ever watched a video of a large chimney being demolished (like this one for example) you'll see that there is a lot of bending force when a tall object topples. Basically the center of gravity of the object wants to accelerate at 1G, and tries to drag the top with it, but that means the top is being accelerated a lot more quickly than the gravity force on it would justify. I'm not at all surprised that the LOX part of the rocket might have failed before hitting. Note that there's no internal pressure vessel, it's just the stressed skin of the rocket.

 

[scaesare]

Ah, engines only recovery a'la ULA, without giant helicopters and stuff...
View attachment 108702
http://imgur.com/a/WMmFd

The rest of those Imgur pics are cool in that they show the barge thrusters folded up out of the water...