Supply rocket bound for Space Station explodes (1 Viewer)

[Jobber]

Can someone smarter than me explain why they're using rockets instead of a reusable plane that can make it into orbit?

 

[Stinger Ray]

Can someone smarter than me explain why they're using rockets instead of a reusable plane that can make it into orbit?

Are you serious?

 

[El Floppo]

And make em out of black box material too.

 

[Sand]

Was watching it live and somewhere north of 30kms up it's just suddenly disintegrated. No idea if the payload was launched into orbit prior.

It experienced rapid disassembly during liftoff, so it didn't deliver anything.

How can they be going backwards in this area of "expertise"? These explosions are making NASA look like the old USSR. Its not supposed to be like this so what gives?

This isn't NASA, this is SpaceX. There is a lot of back and forth in the industry as to how much testing, verification, and such needs to go into these commercial launches. As Scott Kelly (who is on the ISS) tweeted - "Spaceflight is hard". He is spot on.

Can someone smarter than me explain why they're using rockets instead of a reusable plane that can make it into orbit?

Are you serious?

It actually isn't a bad question. NASA is going back to a rocket design with Orion instead of something Shuttle-like because a rocket system (like the SpaceX Dragon system) is inherently less risky. Fewer parts, less complex problems to solve, less things to go wrong.

They used a 1960 russian engine. Not designed in 1960. A 1960 engine taken out of storage and retrofitted.

Elon indicated something wrong in the oxygen tankage/delivery system. Could have been the engine, could have been something further upstream. If they lost containment of LOX that might explain it. We'll see what they come up with.

NASA lost a ton of budget post project prometheus, and alot of manpower.

NASA's budget is currently being eaten alive by James Webb. Although it will be awesome when it finally goes up, man has it gone over budget.

 

[FattyVM]

Was watching it live and somewhere north of 30kms up it's just suddenly disintegrated. No idea if the payload was launched into orbit prior.

It experienced rapid disassembly during liftoff, so it didn't deliver anything.

How can they be going backwards in this area of "expertise"? These explosions are making NASA look like the old USSR. Its not supposed to be like this so what gives?

This isn't NASA, this is SpaceX. There is a lot of back and forth in the industry as to how much testing, verification, and such needs to go into these commercial launches. As Scott Kelly (who is on the ISS) tweeted - "Spaceflight is hard". He is spot on.

Can someone smarter than me explain why they're using rockets instead of a reusable plane that can make it into orbit?

Are you serious?

It actually isn't a bad question. NASA is going back to a rocket design with Orion instead of something Shuttle-like because a rocket system (like the SpaceX Dragon system) is inherently less risky. Fewer parts, less complex problems to solve, less things to go wrong.

They used a 1960 russian engine. Not designed in 1960. A 1960 engine taken out of storage and retrofitted.

Elon indicated something wrong in the oxygen tankage/delivery system. Could have been the engine, could have been something further upstream. If they lost containment of LOX that might explain it. We'll see what they come up with.

NASA lost a ton of budget post project prometheus, and alot of manpower.

NASA's budget is currently being eaten alive by James Webb. Although it will be awesome when it finally goes up, man has it gone over budget.

Probably deserved to be. :( They strung together a bunch of miserable f'ups and came up short of alot of developmental innovations. We probably have some people who used to work with them on these forums, i'd love to hear their perspectives.

On the positive side, I think they are doing better on their decreased budget and reduced responsibilities than they did in the 90's. They are back to trying to find quality engineers and leaders who can direct them.

 

[Sinn Fein]

Yeah, and NASA expects us to believe they sent a man to the moon and back.