Gasoline leak blamed for Falcon 9 booster loss after touchdown

WASHINGTON — A Falcon 9 booster that was destroyed after touchdown March 2 suffered a gasoline leak throughout its flight that triggered a fireplace.

SpaceX officers talking at two briefings March 7 about upcoming launches for NASA offered new particulars concerning the incident on the March 2 launch of a set of Starlink satellites, recognized by the corporate as Group 12-20, which prompted the booster to topple after touchdown on a droneship.

At one briefing concerning the upcoming Falcon 9 launch of NASA’s SPHEREx astronomy spacecraft and PUNCH area science mission, Julianna Scheiman, director of NASA science missions at SpaceX, stated a fireplace broke out about 48 seconds after what seemed to be a traditional touchdown of the booster.

“That fireplace finally resulted within the deterioration of the structural integrity of the touchdown leg in that booster and toppled over,” she stated.

Scheiman stated each SpaceX and NASA’s Launch Providers Program (LSP) reviewed knowledge from the incident. “There’s no concern or threat to ascent.”

Denton Gibson, launch director for the mission for NASA LSP, confirmed on the briefing that NASA did its personal impartial analysis of the incident, providing a “contemporary set of eyes” to make sure there aren’t any points with the upcoming launch. “We’ve gone by means of that course of and we’ve gotten snug,” he stated, permitting the completion of a launch readiness evaluation.

The SPHEREx/PUNCH launch, now scheduled for 10:09 p.m. Jap March 8, has been delayed greater than every week primarily by launch car points. Whereas SpaceX has not carried out a Falcon 9 launch because the failed touchdown, Scheiman stated groups have been engaged on different points with the car for SPHEREx and PUNCH, together with the payload adapter and fairing.

At one other briefing a number of hours later concerning the Crew-10 mission to the Worldwide House Station, Invoice Gerstenmaier, vp of construct and flight reliability at SpaceX, supplied extra particulars concerning the incident on the Group 12-20 launch.

He stated there was a gasoline leak beginning about 85 seconds after liftoff in one of many 9 engines within the booster. The gasoline was vaporized by a scorching portion the engine, making a flammable surroundings. “However on the way in which up, there was on oxygen to work together with the gasoline, so there was no drawback in any respect throughout ascent.”

He stated that about 45 seconds after touchdown, “sufficient oxygen got here into the compartment the place it interacted with the gasoline and a scorching portion of the engine, which was recognized to be scorching, after which we had a fireplace.” That fireplace blew out a “barrel panel” on the aspect of the rocket as designed. The hearth, he famous, was contained throughout the compartment for that single engine.

“If we might have an issue throughout the ascent, this reveals that the hearth and the injury can be contained with only a single engine out, which nonetheless permits us to perform the complete mission,” Gerstenmaier stated.

Engineers are nonetheless working to determine the supply of the leak. “It’s fairly tough to find out what was trigger and what was impact from the hearth,” he stated. “The hearth was fairly in depth. It melted numerous aluminum parts, so it’s tough to see.”

Steve Stich, NASA industrial crew program supervisor, stated later within the briefing that the company will look rigorously at that difficulty because it prepares for the Crew-10 launch, scheduled for March 12. That features a static fireplace of the booster deliberate for the night of March 9.

“We’ve a chance to step again and take into consideration our flight, and take into consideration the upkeep we did on our car, all of the areas that we inspected,” he stated. “We’ll go static fireplace the car and look additional cautious to look see if there’s any space the place we might doubtlessly have a gasoline leak.”

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