The Berean
Well-known member
On a serious note it's a real bummer for Orbital Sciences Corp. Launching rockets is not easy.
A Bad Day At The Rocket Ranch. :(
- Thread starter rocketman
- Start date
The old Thor became the Delta rocket which evolved into the Delta II rocket which is one of the rockets I work with. The Delta II used to be America's workhorse, the new workhorse is the Atlas V which i currently support as well as the Delta IV line. The Thor was where it really started for space launch in the early 50's, a great rocket tradition to be sure. :thumb:
Really that is not the case Nick or at least the cost savings measures, America sadly has not developed a heavy launch Kerosene/LOX (liquid oxygen) engine since the apollo era. Orbital bought these engines that were left over from the N1 failed Soviet moon rocket from the sixties and they were crappy engines then. They were far cheaper than developing a new engine from scratch which costs in the neighborhood of 2 billion and a 7 year lead time from concept to flight. America has dropped the ball and allowed our space launch capabilities to fade away which puts our reliance on the Russians for a supplier for our space launchers to procure heavy lift LOX/Kerosene engines. The Atlas V also runs a Russian engine but,it is far more robust and has proven to be extremely reliable 50+ launches without a mishap. I can say that having worked on many engines, that the Russians are leaps and bounds ahead of America in terms of the technology put into their engines, because of proprietary rights I will not elaborate why but, I can say their engines are far more powerful & efficient than any Kerosene/LOX engine that America has ever developed, just by the sheer numbers of performance. The next evolution in rocket engines will be the Liquid Methane/LOX engine, more bang for the buck and made here in the USA.
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Yes, they were, they were pulled from storage refurbished run on a test stand then integrated. They had one fail catastrophically on the test stand earlier this year (I believe) and they said they had fixed the problem & the engines were cleared for flight...obviously there is still a problem.
Bad week for rockets and spaceships.
The Virgin Galactic spaceship exploded while testing a new fuel.
Apparently over 700 people had spent $250,000 each on tickets including Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and Katy Perry.
I wonder if the people who purchased tickets would still go up in the spacecraft after what happened yesterday?
musterion
Well-known member
I thought the Thor program was plagued with problems...lots of them blowing up on the pad, etc. Could be wrong about that, though.
rainee
New member
Yes, tough blow, I felt bad too.
I was worried about two things:
First I hope it wasn't sabotage.
And most importantly I hope it wasn't a reminder that man is drawn to the heavens but ...
Many of the early rocket programs were riddled with failure but, through those failures we also went to the moon. The thor/delta rocket has been one of the most reliable systems through the years of it's evolution to what is now the Delta II.
Virgin/Scaled Composites decided to go with solid fuel instead of liquid and solid fuel can be sketchy. Once solid fuel is lit there is no way to shut it down, the acceleration is significant and I wonder if the airframe of spaceship 2 was strong enough or if it came apart, I am not clear exactly on what happened as of yet. Really a bad week for spacelaunch this week...though our company launched a GPS bird successfully the day after the Antares without issue. Launching rockets is a tough unforgiving business.
rainee
New member
I have so much respect for Rocketman, so I hope he does not get any heartburn over me posting again here about something that has sometimes worried me.
I love science. I like at lot of sci-fi. Have blood relations who are science guys and sci-fi lovers!
When I was young my family was signed up for NASA toy kits. Saw all the spacecrafts. We all went outside when man landed on the moon. I took a picture of the moon with my swing camera - remember those?
And I am still interested and want to know what is out there!
I want to see!!
It is exciting. We are now leaving our solar system with Voyager 1. What is out there??
I said once we should find a band of petroleum jelly out there causing everything to look farther away because of refraction...
(Because for me anything is possible - I believe in God.)
Whatever is there is great like all the rest of His creation - so it is all fine.
I love it, BUT:
How many pursue space travel to prove there is no God?
They may not say it like that but are there peeps out there
hoping in some way to find something to further support their thinking that evolution or alien life or anything at all can challenge or disprove the concept of existence of God?
And here we are... just human. Made from dust.
Yes we built big ships and sailed around the world.
Now, yes, we fly. We fly around the world.
And now even more than that - we go into the heavens...
Beyond the Earth -- Beyond even the influences of our Sun!
(http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/sep/12/voyager-1-leaves-solar-system)
But we haven't changed all that much have we?
Sometimes I worry.
I love science. I like at lot of sci-fi. Have blood relations who are science guys and sci-fi lovers!
When I was young my family was signed up for NASA toy kits. Saw all the spacecrafts. We all went outside when man landed on the moon. I took a picture of the moon with my swing camera - remember those?
And I am still interested and want to know what is out there!
I want to see!!
It is exciting. We are now leaving our solar system with Voyager 1. What is out there??
I said once we should find a band of petroleum jelly out there causing everything to look farther away because of refraction...
(Because for me anything is possible - I believe in God.)
Whatever is there is great like all the rest of His creation - so it is all fine.
I love it, BUT:
How many pursue space travel to prove there is no God?
They may not say it like that but are there peeps out there
hoping in some way to find something to further support their thinking that evolution or alien life or anything at all can challenge or disprove the concept of existence of God?
And here we are... just human. Made from dust.
Yes we built big ships and sailed around the world.
Now, yes, we fly. We fly around the world.
And now even more than that - we go into the heavens...
Beyond the Earth -- Beyond even the influences of our Sun!
(http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/sep/12/voyager-1-leaves-solar-system)
But we haven't changed all that much have we?
Sometimes I worry.
I have so much respect for Rocketman, so I hope he does not get any heartburn over me posting again here about something that has sometimes worried me.
I love science. I like at lot of sci-fi. Have blood relations who are science guys and sci-fi lovers!
When I was young my family was signed up for NASA toy kits. Saw all the spacecrafts. We all went outside when man landed on the moon. I took a picture of the moon with my swing camera - remember those?
And I am still interested and want to know what is out there!
I want to see!!
It is exciting. We are now leaving our solar system with Voyager 1. What is out there??
I said once we should find a band of petroleum jelly out there causing everything to look farther away because of refraction...
(Because for me anything is possible - I believe in God.)
Whatever is there is great like all the rest of His creation - so it is all fine.
I love it, BUT:
How many pursue space travel to prove there is no God?
They may not say it like that but are there peeps out there
hoping in some way to find something to further support their thinking that evolution or alien life or anything at all can challenge or disprove the concept of existence of God?
And here we are... just human. Made from dust.
Yes we built big ships and sailed around the world.
Now, yes, we fly. We fly around the world.
And now even more than that - we go into the heavens...
Beyond the Earth -- Beyond even the influences of our Sun!
(http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/sep/12/voyager-1-leaves-solar-system)
But we haven't changed all that much have we?
Sometimes I worry.
God is still God and nothing the deniers say or do can change that and for every denier there are just as many who are convinced who He is and the magnificence of His creation...Take Heart.
| Apollo 8 Gives Christmas Message to The Good Earth | |
Saved.One.by.Grace
New member
Every engineer I know, and I am one, is a little (or very) eccentric.
lain: But I mostly work on gas turbine engines, not rockets.
Every engineer I know, and I am one, is a little (or very) eccentric.
In some respects yes but, there are certain ones usually not even called engineers anymore, they are more like technical fellows, subject matter experts...very, very, smart people but, a bit strange from the norm.
They have their similarities, very cool. :thumb:
rainee
New member
Thank you very much Rocketman for your kind and sharing attitude toward my posts!
So guess what I found just now?!
An article about one of the Astronauts taking Communion on the Moon trip. Did you know? I did not!
Apparently NASA required him do it quietly and privately because Madalyn Murray O'Hair had already sued them for another astronaut previously reading from Genesis over the air waves...
Anyway this find reminded me of what you said about taking heart - so thanks again!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/19/moon-communion-buzz-aldrin_n_5600648.html
So guess what I found just now?!
An article about one of the Astronauts taking Communion on the Moon trip. Did you know? I did not!
Apparently NASA required him do it quietly and privately because Madalyn Murray O'Hair had already sued them for another astronaut previously reading from Genesis over the air waves...
Anyway this find reminded me of what you said about taking heart - so thanks again!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/19/moon-communion-buzz-aldrin_n_5600648.html
Yep those crabby atheists will sue over anything that is good or right that people of faith acknowledge. Petty really....
I am glad you can see the glass as half full as I do. :thumb: