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Government Watchdog Says SpaceX Falcon 9s Are Prone To Cracks (engadget.com)

Posted by msmash on from the need-for-slowing-down dept.

An anonymous reader shares an Engadget article: SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets apparently have a serious issue that could delay the company's manned missions. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Government Accountability Office investigated both Boeing and SpaceX -- the corporations that won NASA's space taxi contracts -- and found that Falcon 9's turbine blades suffer from persistent cracks. GAO's preliminary report says these turboblades' tendency to crack is a "major threat to rocket safety," since they pump fuel into Falcon 9's rocket engines. NASA's acting administrator Robert Lightfoot told the WSJ that government officials have known about the issue for months or even years. The agency even told SpaceX that the cracks are too much risk for manned flights. A spokesperson said SpaceX has "qualified [its] engines to be robust" to cracks, but it's now "modifying the design to avoid them altogether."

5 of 139 comments (clear)

  1. Funny by Luthair · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How all the positive stories about Tesla and SpaceX make reference to Elon but all the negative stories don't even mention him in the summary and often (as in this case) in the article.

    1. Re:Funny by NIGGERpenisbestPENIS · · Score: 1, Insightful

      How all the positive stories about Tesla and SpaceX make reference to Elon but all the negative stories don't even mention him in the summary and often (as in this case) in the article.

      It could just be that you've become a cynical bastard.

      The positive stories tend to be based on press releases during which Elon is choosing to point something out. It's no big surprise he isn't running to the media to give them quotes highlighting the latest setbacks. That's more of a damage control deal, not a press release deal. All companies behave this way. It's likely all organizations behave this way.

      --
      The best is simply the best.
  2. Re:Musk always ignores safety by rhazz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    He hasn't taken quality control seriously in any of his ventures, that is why they are all get-rich-quick schemes.

    You want to back that up with... anything?

  3. Re:Musk always ignores safety by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Insightful

    they are all get-rich-quick schemes.

    1. He was already rich.
    2. If he wanted to get richER, then an aerospace company would have been about the worst possible way to do that. Historically, aerospace tends to make large fortunes into small fortunes rather than the other way around.

  4. Re:Musk always ignores safety by thegarbz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    2. If he wanted to get richER, then an aerospace company would have been about the worst possible way to do that.

    Reminds me of the Richard Branson quote:
    "If you want to be a Millionaire, start with a billion dollars and launch a new airline."