Comments on: SeaLaunch explosion video online

By: Ronster

Ronster — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 14:26:44 +0000

You can view photos of the platform heading back to Long Beach, CA on the Sea Launch website. It arrived back in Long Beach on February 16th. My understanding is that the blast deflectors were lost, but most of the platform is undamaged. You can see part of the the blackened launch area in two of the photos. Further details will be forthcoming, but the finding by the Sea Launch Failure Review Oversight Board is that a metal fragment had gotten into the engine. FOD (foreign object debris/damage) strikes again. If you are in the Los Angeles area, take a drive to Long Beach and go to Terminal Island. A public access road will take you very near to the launch platform and the support ship. I am lucky that I was able to tour both of them as I work for Boeing.

By: Rockethead

Rockethead — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 21:54:33 +0000

Although it looks really bad, if the vehicle’s first stage exploded on the pad, the damage might not be that great. The large fireball indicates that might be the case. If the rocvket dropped down INTO the hole, then the contained explosion could really cause some serious damage.

Looks to me like the RD-171 first stage engine exploded while increasing thrust or the first stage fuel tank ruptured, fuel spilled, and ignited on the pad.

It is a bit curious that the rocket seesm to fall stright down. A fuel tank rupture might cause it to tip in one direction. That argues for an engine explosion but right now is pure speculation.

We will need to see what the other cameras on board the platform have recorded.

By: Cisco

Cisco — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 20:11:13 +0000

Big set back for the Space programs around the world. Companies and organizations will have to scramble for the hot commodity of the existing rockets and launch systems. Lots of money will be lost and lots of services will be delayed until the satellites get to orbit. Go Atlas! Go Proton! Go…

By: bad Jim

bad Jim — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 04:32:34 +0000

JC's comment is a lousy Russian pun. "Zhal" means something like "oh, well".

By: ovcolumbia

ovcolumbia — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 14:24:29 +0000

Just an FYI, the callout ‘go inertial’ is a standard call for Sea Launch at liftoff.

By: CR

CR — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 06:51:17 +0000

If you pause and go frame by frame (or at least as close to frame-by-frame as you can on a YouTube link) you can better tell that the rocket collapses/falls downward/moves relative to the structure on the right side of the launch platform. This is before the camera shift/jump to the wider angle after the explosion really gets going.

By the way, that explosion was massive; I’d be surprised if the platform wasn’t at least severely damaged to the point of having to be scrapped or scuttled. (That’s if it survived at all.)

By: michael

michael — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 03:08:01 +0000

Actually, I’m not certain if we can really tell what’s happening to the rocket’s position just by looking at the video. It appears to go down, but hold your mouse over the nose of the rocket during the explosion. It really doesn’t seem to move very much then. At least it doesn’t seem to move much to me, and certainly not much compared to the motion of the camera itself after the explosion. Maybe it really does move downwards, but I’d say it’s difficult to tell from this alone.

Is that the live feed which they then cut? If so, the Sea Launch logo seems to add a little bit of a painful, ironic flavor.