The horizontal test of the five-segment SRB (Ares I first stage) out in Utah scheduled for today has been scrubbed due to a hydraulic problem. They’re going to attempt to reschedule for sometime in the next few days after they sort out the problem.
13 thoughts on “Scrub”
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The remainder of Steve Cook’s career at MSFC has also been scrubbed. 🙂 He announced today that he was leaving for Dynetics. Rocketman was right about this one.
Marshall’s gain, Dynetics’ loss.
Heheh, Keith Cowing reports “word has it” Cook has resigned. He’s checking with NASA PAO. Once bitten, twice shy?
Back to the SRB; I’d like to ask a possibly dumb question. Why are we still using a five-segment solid engine in the first place? Isn’t that bad engineering?
At least, what I have gathered from the history of rocketry is that single-piece solid engines are preferable or safer.
Casey,
The problem is you need to ship it by rail from UT to FL. That limits the size of it.
Dr. Matula
Make it twice as long and fly it. Ha ha!
I would think that grains cast in segments would tend to have fewer flaws and would be easier to inspect. This would tend to offset the safety advantages of not having segments.
Why do they have to be manufactured in Utah? Sure, Thiokol is based there, but what would prevent them from opening a new plant somewhere else in the country that had barge access to the sea? Other than politics, of course …
Somewhere there’s an alternate Earth where the Shuttle SRBs are built by Aerojet and NASA has seven more live astronauts.
A. It wouldn’t be as simple as “opening another plant with barge access….” Surely you’re aware of the years of effort, testing, qualification, and more effort it would take to re-create what has been proven to work in Utah.
B. Who is Thiokol?
C. The motors were not designed based on the size of a railroad tunnel or tracks. They were designed to function as they do to launch the Space Shuttle.
D. You obviously haven’t done your homework into what happened with Challenger. Maybe you should.
My compliments to ATK and NASA for scrubbing the test until they could investigate the hydraulic problem. Human spaceflight is not something to take lightly. By the time Ares I is ready to fly, it will be safer than any launch vehicle ever built.
By the time Ares I is ready to fly, it will be safer than any launch vehicle ever built.
Well, there’s nothing safer than a rocket that doesn’t fly.
A. It wouldn’t be as simple as “opening another plant with barge access….” Surely you’re aware of the years of effort, testing, qualification, and more effort it would take to re-create what has been proven to work in Utah.
If that was the case, how come EADS can easily have EPS casting facilities near the Kourou launch center in South America, when their main facilities are in Europe?
B. Who is Thiokol?
Had you actually googled for it, you would have seen Thiokol was the company who designed the Space Shuttle solid rockets. Thiokol was bought by ATK hence the name change… But they are still made at pretty much the same place (Utah) in pretty much the same way.
C. The motors were not designed based on the size of a railroad tunnel or tracks. They were designed to function as they do to launch the Space Shuttle.
Read some more.
D. You obviously haven’t done your homework into what happened with Challenger. Maybe you should.
Read some more. You do not even need to do any in depth research. Even Wikipedia has this info.
Ignorant idiot. Ignorant because you do not know what you are talking about. Idiot because you made comments about the relevance of Thiokol without even bothering to look at what the other person was talking about.
A. It wouldn’t be as simple as “opening another plant with barge access….” Surely you’re aware of the years of effort, testing, qualification, and more effort it would take to re-create what has been proven to work in Utah.
Sure, it would. And it wouldn’t be simple because opening a plant with barge access is not simple. The thing is once you have something working in Utah, it’ll work elsewhere as well. You’re copying something that works.