SpaceX Blast Investigation Suggests Breach in Oxygen Tank's Helium System (reuters.com)

Weeks after a SpaceX rocket exploded inexplicably, engineers at Elon Musk's company have traced the flaw to its source. Space today released the initial results of its investigation, in which it says that a breach in helium system in the Falcon 9's liquid oxygen system caused the sudden flare up. From a Reuters report: SpaceX, owned and operated by technology entrepreneur Elon Musk, was fueling a Falcon 9 rocket on the launch pad in Florida on Sept. 1 in preparation for a routine test-firing when a bright fireball suddenly emerged around the rocket's upper stage. "At this stage of the investigation, preliminary review of the data and debris suggests that a large breach in the cryogenic helium system of the second stage liquid oxygen tank took place," SpaceX said in a statement posted on its website. No one was hurt in the explosion, which could be heard 30 miles (48 km) away from SpaceX's launch pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The cause of the accident is under investigation.

Comments

Re: Huh.

[DanielRavenNest]

Nah, that's too obvious. A sniper rifle fired by a CCAFS security person with money troubles is less conspicuous. Security staff have a reason to be on the base, even patrolling the launch pad area. On the other hand, there's a whole lot of nobody else around the launch pads, for safety reasons. So all he has to do is find a good spot, pop off a shot, then drive over to the launch pad like a concerned security guy would do when something goes boom.

Why money troubles? The people with a motive, like United Launch Alliance, could pay off someone for a whole lot less than what they stand to lose by SpaceX eating their business. Even a six month delay and a few customers moving payloads to "spread their risks" is worth a billion or so in revenue.

Re:Huh.

[Rei]

The helium isn't used for cooling; it's a pressurant. It's lower mass to make a small COPV and have that store your pressurant in it than to have the whole LOX tank be strong enough to withstand the pressure.

It's always bothered me, the concept of having a COPV sitting around in LOX, though. Ignoring the thermal cycling, LOX and epoxy aren't exactly fast friends. We don't make LOX tanks out of composites because composites tend to become impact sensitive in LOX (there've been some attempts, but it's still an active reseach field, not a "solved problem"). Not sure there's that much difference between making your whole tank out of composites vs. having a composite tank inside of one. I don't know what SpaceX does, if anything, to try to protect them, but the general concept has always concerned me.