12-12-2017, 08:31 PM
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Master Modeler
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Fairbanks, Alaska
Posts: 6,507
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by tbzep
When I got home and tuned in, they were flushing the business end with water so I knew it was a last second abort. I just wasn't sure if it was actually live or if I was looking at a previous attempt. I've only had a few seconds in front of a computer the last few days. I'm glad their failsafes worked and hopefully the problem will be solved quickly.
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You were lucky--I wasn't watching when that video was being shown. :-) I agree--such events can potentially turn into debris-collection exercises if more goes wrong during the abort sequence (even static firings--on a launch pad or a test stand--can [and on occasion, have] become expensive fireworks displays [the Atlas-Able on-pad explosion after a static firing of the Atlas' engines is a famous example]). Also:
For anyone else who may have missed the Electron launch abort, here are videos of it--a short version (1:15, see: www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnpJj6DhweU ) and a longer version (10:15, see: www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2u0gDCZoz8 ), plus a 4:38 report (see: www.youtube.com/watch?v=laEqnXAsj64 ). If an Electron and a Russian Proton were ever launched together (an Electron with payload(s) could be strapped to the side of a Proton and go its own way to orbit after launch, like the pod-launched OV1 satellite/solid upper stage motor units that rode piggyback on Atlas ICBM flights), it could be called a "hydrogen mission," or a "protium" (ordinary 1-proton, 1-electron, no neutron(s) hydrogen) launch vehicle :-) |