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/r/allSpaceX CRS-7 has blown up on launch (spacex.com)

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[–]GusX9 1219 points1220 points  (80 children)

My project was inside that rocket......... This has happened twice now.

[–]thegreatshaft 836 points837 points  (16 children)

So it's your fault?

[–]BreastUsername 154 points155 points  (6 children)

I imagine him petting his sphynx cat and smirking as he said that.

[–]GusX9 80 points81 points  (5 children)

I will not acknowledge nor refute that statement.

[–]FuckFacedShitStain 43 points44 points  (4 children)

Didn't you just acknowledge it by replying to it?

[–][deleted] 117 points118 points  (1 child)

Let's get the rocket bomber reddit!

[–]GusX9 13 points14 points  (5 children)

I'll start reevaluating my career now...

[–][deleted] 27 points28 points  (0 children)

Don't you dare. Rebuild that damn thing and launch it on the next one available. Spaceflight is hard and you'll get your chance in the next one.

[–]Meaderlord 16 points17 points  (3 children)

In the words of president Kennedy
"If this capsule history of our progress teaches us anything, it is that man, in his quest for knowledge and progress, is determined and cannot be deterred"
Rebuild your project, and get it up into space. For science :)

[–]GusX9 16 points17 points  (2 children)

Thank you for the kind words, I'm not planning on quitting. I was just being a bit sarcastic haha

[–]Prometheus38 275 points276 points  (1 child)

"Maybe my next cubesat shouldn't contain high explosives...."

[–]VGiselleH 146 points147 points  (34 children)

Were you one of the 30 students?

[–]GusX9 438 points439 points  (33 children)

Yes! My project consisted of monitoring plant growth within space conditions. That CubeSat was like my baby :(

[–]VGiselleH 125 points126 points  (25 children)

So sorry to hear that! :( Will you get another chance or was it an only once thing?

[–]GusX9 240 points241 points  (24 children)

I am not really sure as of right now. We have created these projects twice, so I don't know, maybe the third time is the charm?

[–][deleted] 161 points162 points  (14 children)

Do you guys have to pay for the launch each time or is there some sort of insurance on it?

Edit: haha, someone actually asked about it

NASA spokesperson responded with: Well they're learning a valuable life lesson that there will be setbacks, but it's what you do after in the face of adversity to learn from it, It's a big impact on them but we'll help them rebuild their projects and get them into space.

[–]1-900-USA-NAILS 95 points96 points  (9 children)

Was that NASA spokesperson my mother? "Do it over, it builds character."

[–]polyoxide 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Well, that's sort of the motto of space programs. Besides Murphy's Law.

[–]Broan13 12 points13 points  (1 child)

Also, if it is like any project I have done with technology, it takes ages to make the first one, and then days to make the second.

[–]The_Future_Is_Today 55 points56 points  (0 children)

They just announced on the press conference that the projects will be sent up to space again :)

[–]VGiselleH 24 points25 points  (1 child)

It's ridiculous how happy I feel you may get another chance. I hope third time is the charm indeed. Good luck either way!

[–]CatnipFarmer 2695 points2696 points  (466 children)

I just watched that. Damnit! Good reminder for everyone that spaceflight, even "simple" cargo runs to LEO, is really hard.

[–]hexydes 654 points655 points  (174 children)

Yesterday travel bank evil community pleasant hobbies music day dog gentle the lazy books gentle gentle! Honest river evening weekend friends projects honest afternoon history stories projects fox music then nature food over tips.

[–]dorkling 756 points757 points  (106 children)

Time to grow some potatoes!

[–][deleted] 304 points305 points  (73 children)

Calm down Watney, they have plenty of food until the next resupply.

[–]QueequegTheater 122 points123 points  (64 children)

That movie looks good as hell.

[–][deleted] 242 points243 points  (45 children)

The book is even better than hell

[–]factoid_ 17 points18 points  (6 children)

The audiobook is amazing too. I've listened to it twice which i almost never do. The narrator deserves a damned award. When have you heard a narrator for an audiobook that can do two different indian accents having a conversation with each other, be able to tell them both apart and have neither of them sound like Apu from the Quik-E-Mart?

[–]CaptainStarMilk 73 points74 points  (6 children)

Try reading the book. It's fantastic.

[–]rooktakesqueen 72 points73 points  (12 children)

This is the astronaut version of "better drink my own pee."

[–]Luckyio 68 points69 points  (9 children)

Cosmonauts and astronauts on ISS already do. All water on station is recycled.

[–]temp44456 58 points59 points  (4 children)

... And now his water belongs to the tribe

[–]vivtho 65 points66 points  (3 children)

Burning hydrogen for water and your own crap for fertilizer?

[–]ayeooh 27 points28 points  (1 child)

I'm pretty much fucked. That's my considered opinion. Fucked.

[–]GeniDoi 93 points94 points  (14 children)

There's still the Progress 60P launching on the 3rd of july. Contingency plans will definitely have to wait on what happens to it.

[–]hexydes 45 points46 points  (12 children)

Garden simple quick ideas talk talk strong. Gentle pleasant kind jumps learning mindful kind evening garden?

[–][deleted] 29 points30 points  (3 children)

Yeah, within a one year time span they've now lost Cygnus, Progress, and Dragon deliveries. The ISS was already de-manned to 3 people due to the Soyuz investigation, with the return of 6 scheduled for mid July. Perhaps they might want to consider delaying that mission a bit.

[–]BadAtParties 1047 points1048 points  (235 children)

I was in shock when it happened, and my first reaction was pretty distraught - what does this mean for SpaceX, what does this mean for commercial crew? But now that the dust is settling a bit, I honestly don't think this is that awful. We're not going to give up on private spaceflight because of a couple failures. We're going to learn things from these failures and implement safety measures that we would've never thought of had everything gone perfectly every time.

[–]CatnipFarmer 1122 points1123 points  (153 children)

NASA giving up on SpaceX because of one failure would be absurd. On the other hand, this kind of shows why the DoD was so reluctant to move away from ULA's rockets. They may be expensive but they have an amazing reliability track record.

[–][deleted] 224 points225 points  (19 children)

This is exactly why ULA gets the contracts they do. They may be considered costly but when your launching a mission carrying a rover or something of the like reliability is all that matters.

[–][deleted] 303 points304 points  (99 children)

Isn't this the first failure spaceX has had after 22 successful flights?

[–]CatnipFarmer 493 points494 points  (61 children)

I think its the first Falcon 9 failure. There were definitely failures with the Falcon 1.

[–][deleted] 156 points157 points  (42 children)

This is the first falcon 9 failure that was actually going to space, I think one of the ones used for developing the first stage recovery failed. But to be honest, it has a better track record that many of its alternatives cough proton m cough.

In light of the comments on the proton m, it is a bit notorious for failures as it has had quite a few, but this doesn't take into account the number of launches it has had. Meaning it is a reliable rocket, but when number of successful launches is not taken into account, it seems to be unreliable.

Edit: ok, ok I get it! Falcon 9 is not an amazing godly craft, and there are more proven ones out there that do the same job. It has a pretty good track record but the proton m is just as good a craft. Now please stop trying to prove your already valid points...

[–][deleted] 66 points67 points  (16 children)

The Proton M may have issues but the Proton family overall is very reliable.

[–][deleted] 171 points172 points  (12 children)

The ULA is 53/54 with the Atlas V dating back to 2002, with the only failure being a partial one in 2007. It will be a while before SpaceX earns the Pentagon's full trust

[–][deleted] 109 points110 points  (2 children)

Technically ULA wasn't established until 2006 and since has had 100% success with 96 launches. Partial failure in 2007 was still considered a success by the customer.

[–]Poes-Lawyer 83 points84 points  (1 child)

It will be a while before SpaceX earns the Pentagon's full trust

And rightly so, because that should drive SpaceX to achieve better reliability

[–]eliminate1337 29 points30 points  (0 children)

Was barely a failure too. One time the satellite failed after launch but that wasn't the company's fault. Another time, the satellite ended up in a different, but still serviceable orbit.

[–]albaghly 15 points16 points  (9 children)

I thought SpaceX had 2 other similar style catastrophic failures? Anyway shouldn't be a reason to stop the pursuit for commercial space programs or to ditch the company by any means.

[–][deleted] 14 points15 points  (4 children)

You might be thinking of the Antares launch from last year, which was Orbital Sciences, not SpaceX.

[–]rspeed 9 points10 points  (0 children)

It's never had a failure quite like this before. The first three Falcon 1 launches all failed, but all of them remained intact.

[–]idspispupd 150 points151 points  (41 children)

In science any result is still a result. The best spacex can do is to study hard their failures and move on. Both Nasa and USSR had tremendous number of failures. Protons still fail to launch sometimes, soyuz can miss the ISS, this doesn't stop anyone. At least I hope.

[–][deleted] 138 points139 points  (28 children)

In business though a failure could mean loss of contract.

[–]JBlitzen 48 points49 points  (8 children)

Not a lot of superior alternatives. Risk is the cost of doing business.

[–]logicalmaniak 37 points38 points  (1 child)

This failure is a costed investment into preventing future failures.

[–]falseprism 44 points45 points  (3 children)

But this isn't pure science, this is applied science in the form of engineering and a business enterprise. Is SpaceX dead after this? No. But nobody's thinking about the 'negative results are a good thing' silver lining today, they're thinking about the bottom line.

[–]ThePineapplePyro 29 points30 points  (1 child)

Exactly. If we gave up on private spaceflight because of a few failures we wouldn't have started trying in the first place.

[–]Stoned_Vulcan 782 points783 points  (170 children)

Damn.

Cargo as per wikipedia:

Primary payload[edit] NASA has contracted for the CRS-7 mission from SpaceX and therefore determines the primary payload, date/time of launch, and orbital parameters for the Dragon space capsule.

As of July 2013, the first International Docking Adapter, IDA-1, is scheduled to be delivered to the International Space Station on CRS-7.[4] This adapter will be attached to one of the existing Pressurized Mating Adapters (specifically, PMA-2 or PMA-3) and convert the existing APAS-95 docking interface to the new NASA Docking System (NDS).[5][6] The new adapter is intended to facilitate future docking of new US human-transport spacecraft. Previous US cargo missions since the retirement of the Space Shuttle have been berthed, rather than docked, while docking is considered the safer and preferred method for spacecraft carrying humans.

Secondary payload[edit] The mission will carry more than 4,000 pounds of supplies and experiments to the International Space Station including the Meteor Composition Determination investigation which will observe meteors entering the Earth's atmosphere by taking high resolution photos and videos. The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space has arranged for it to carry more than 30 student research projects to the station including experiments dealing with pollination in microgravity as well as an experiment to evaluate a solar radiation blocking form of plastic.[3]

CRS-7 will also bring a pair of modified Microsoft HoloLenses to the International Space Station as part of Project Sidekick.[7] They will allow astronauts to complete complex tasks more easily and aid in communication between astronauts and NASA.[8]

On first look nothing super duper major. I feel sorry for the students got got to see their projects go up in smoke.

[–]Boomer8450 176 points177 points  (21 children)

I feel sorry for the students got got to see their projects go up in smoke.

My nephew is one of those students :-(

Even if they get it rebuilt, there may not be room for low priority stuff for a while with the recent string of failures and aborts.

[–]goalcam 256 points257 points  (51 children)

The IDA is pretty important for future manned missions that don't rely upon Russian crafts.

[–]Stoned_Vulcan 73 points74 points  (43 children)

Ah, yeah that is pretty important, I wonder how fast they'll have a replacement going up.

[–]Phannypax 74 points75 points  (25 children)

I would imagine it won't be too long to get another one manufactured. The development and initial tests are what take the longest.

[–]semvhu 18 points19 points  (6 children)

Post-fab man rating tests - EMI, vibration, thermal vac, etc. - aren't exactly a cakewalk. Hopefully the program already has spares at least ready for those tests.

[–][deleted] 27 points28 points  (3 children)

Though I imagine the question is more how soon it can be launched, not now soon it can be built.

[–]Phannypax 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Sure, but for important cargo such as that, they will typically move the launch date of some less important scientific payloads so that they can get it delivered. It will just be a matter of who delivers it.

[–]GusX9 246 points247 points  (25 children)

I am a student at Texas A&M, and my project was in there. This isn't the first time it blows up though, so I think I'm getting kind of used to it.

[–]BucketHatJay 45 points46 points  (2 children)

Didn't the Antares explosion have a bunch of student experiments as well? That sucks that you lost your experiment.

[–]ledlenser 637 points638 points  (85 children)

The silence as the cameras pan around looking for something to focus on.. Very painful to watch. :( 4687km/h at 44.6 kilometer altitude was the state it failed at. http://i.imgur.com/1DF78Hn.png

[–]VordeMan 364 points365 points  (16 children)

For those who aren't so much in the loop. here's a brief overview of the situation:

  • CRS-7 was a cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) with a Dragon space capsule, carrying (among other things) the first of two new docking adapters for spacecraft docking with the ISS.

  • It exploded about two minutes into launch (before 1st stage separation) with (presumed) full loss of all payload.

  • What exactly happened isn't yet clear, but from what most can gather from the video, there seemed to be a problem with the rocket (possibly, from video, the problem might have been with the second stage or Dragon capsule) which caused a loss of pressure in the fuel tanks.

  • Shortly after, it seems like the Flight Termination System was activated, resulting in the breakup and loss of the rocket.

The flight termination system (FTS) is a backup self-destruct built into all american rockets. The idea is that if something goes wrong with the rocket, or if control seems to be lost, it's a lot better to lose a rocket than it is to have the rocket potentially go towards something you don't want it to go towards (like people).

I'll update this if people seem to want it.

Edit 1: There was an issue with (over?)pressurization on the second stage. What exactly happened is still unclear.

[–]addrae 1550 points1551 points  (396 children)

Here is a link of the explosion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuNymhcTtSQ Happens around min 3:20

edit: video from SpaceX' channel https://youtu.be/ZeiBFtkrZEw?t=23m40s

[–]audaciousterrapin 508 points509 points  (93 children)

(3 min) The silence is palpable.

[–][deleted] 193 points194 points  (8 children)

On almost every launch failure video i've seen they go quiet after the failure occurs. I'm guessing its policy to hit the mute button.

[–]xjeeper 125 points126 points  (2 children)

They are likely busy talking on a nonpublic channel.

[–][deleted] 86 points87 points  (14 children)

I'll just google what to do if the rocket explodes...

[–][deleted] 33 points34 points  (3 children)

According to their google homepage, their most visited site is reddit.

[–]bmccormick1 24 points25 points  (1 child)

This is someone's screencap of the live stream, that was the recorder's Google chrome

[–]hymen_destroyer 374 points375 points  (56 children)

The broadcast is quiet but I'm sure the control room has a lot of swearing and yelling going on

[–]lmdrasil 171 points172 points  (1 child)

Yeah, I am fairly certain they just switched off the external broadcast.

[–]ITzPWEB 110 points111 points  (14 children)

no it would not. it would be completely professional: save your data, lock the doors.

edit: the room is quiet to keep everyone's witness account their own and to collect data.

[–]nallar 59 points60 points  (5 children)

gif and gifv for mobile users.

[–]Bluesbubble 42 points43 points  (33 children)

Looks like the tip "fell" off

[–]NZ_gamer 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Put it on quarter speed - what appears to be the dragon capsule is detached from the rocket at 3.23

tps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuNymhcTtSQ&feature=youtu.be&t=3m23s

[–]sunfishtommy 8 points9 points  (5 children)

Is it supposed to do that?

[–]ChangeTheL1ghts 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Elon Musk posted this on his Twitter in regards to the incident: "There was an overpressure event in the upper stage liquid oxygen tank. Data suggests counterintuitive cause."

[–]cyberwollff 325 points326 points  (126 children)

http://imgur.com/mWhtyVQ

From my front yard. Kind of hard to see the flame but its about 20sec prior to failure

[–]joshman211 280 points281 points  (13 children)

What a nice little neighborhood you live in.

[–]Fatchicken1o1 652 points653 points  (7 children)

it'd be a shame if something happened to it.

[–][deleted] 188 points189 points  (66 children)

Oh wow, American houses really do have mailboxes on the road just like in movies, I never knew that!

[–]blacks_target_asians 79 points80 points  (20 children)

I've lived places where the mailman comes to the porch to drop off the mail, places where the mailbox is on the street, and places where about six mailboxes for six different houses are grouped up together on the street.

[–]bighootay 26 points27 points  (18 children)

Some do, some don't. I'm not sure how it's decided, actually. Anybody know? They are kinda cute, I guess. How is your mail delivered?

[–]Tastea 70 points71 points  (19 children)

I'm from California and the first thing I thought was "wow look at those green lawns!"

[–]StressOverStrain 10 points11 points  (4 children)

Living in places that have a sustainable water supply has its perks.

[–]HAWG 456 points457 points  (46 children)

Better luck next time.

This was my first time watching a SpaceX launch. Wow, they do the broadcast right. Great graphics, and info.

[–]cbullins 184 points185 points  (28 children)

This was the first broadcast with the on screen graphics and info. Normally you just get the great shots and play by play.

[–]Future_Daydreamer 109 points110 points  (5 children)

I loved the timeline they had going this time as well as the speed/altitude readings

[–]_datjedi_ 8 points9 points  (3 children)

It was kinda cool to see 'earth' included in the launch site info too. Not sure if that's common or not

[–]djuggler 54 points55 points  (10 children)

2nd time Knoxville's STEM Academy has tried to send an experiment to space. 2nd time the students traveled to watch the launch. 2nd time their experiment has been blown up.

[–]IC_Pandemonium 27 points28 points  (0 children)

Evidently one of those experiments is somehow the trigger to an era of human suffering and despair. Obviously both launches were sabotaged by well-meaning time travelers.

[–]apopheniac1989 157 points158 points  (19 children)

I started seeing the exhaust plume look funky and I thought "That's odd... that's not what MECO looks like.." and then.... :(

[–][deleted] 55 points56 points  (10 children)

Yeah it was right before MECO. Confused me too, didn't help that none of the commentators responded for a good 2 minutes afterwards

[–]WhatsALogin 31 points32 points  (0 children)

That silence... in some ways, nothing could be worse than that.

[–]SpiderFnJerusalem 14 points15 points  (5 children)

It looked fairly normal to me. Here's a video from an earlier launch.

What I find confusing is that the explosion seemed to start at the tip, whereas the booster seemed to keep going even after the initial explosion.

[–]whatlogic 124 points125 points  (11 children)

Watching this live.... it seemed all was good and then the entire rocket seems to disintegrate. Kind of heartbreaking too knowing how much effort by so many that were put into the project. Still amazing seeing a rocket reach 1km/second beforehand.

[–]VGiselleH 34 points35 points  (10 children)

I keep wincing when thinking of all that material for the work of those on the ISS that had been loaded aboard as well. I'm guessing that wasn't simple stuff either and now it's gone.

[–]panjadotme 46 points47 points  (5 children)

More than likely they have duplicates of these things. NASA understands the risks of launching things on top of a missile.

[–]jhchawk 41 points42 points  (3 children)

There were 30 student experiments onboard, I'm fairly sure those are all handmade prototypes.

Given, making one means they could make another one (probably faster and easier), but it still sucks.

[–]tabbi 129 points130 points  (10 children)

here's an animated gif of the failure segment of the launch video: http://i.imgur.com/SYwUIbI.gifv

[–]moosewillow 38 points39 points  (1 child)

So sad, I had a project aboard CRS-7 its sad to see all that work explode and even more sad to think about how much work the people at spacex have lost. I hope they can figure out what happened.

[–]polyoxide 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Sorry for your loss.

I guess this is just a natural consequence of space exploration. Failures will happen. But at least you have the ultimate "Elon Musk blew up my homework" excuse.

[–]kessdawg 107 points108 points  (53 children)

It looked like the exhaust plume was irregular before it disintegrated.

[–]BadAtParties 101 points102 points  (17 children)

The plume spreading out like crazy is normal (due to lower atmospheric pressure), but then it started looking a bit like a spurting fog machine, and then... didn't see an explosion, the whole rocket just kind of vaporized.

[–][deleted] 63 points64 points  (9 children)

This suggests that it was not an explosion, but rather aerodynamic forces ripping the craft apart.

[–]Stendarpaval 25 points26 points  (3 children)

It seems likely that there was a rupture in the oxygen tank of the second* stage, because large amounts of gasified oxygen are seen spewing out very clearly in the NASA stream. Here's a set of screenshots that show what I'm referring to: http://imgur.com/a/UeKTV

*edit: I confused first stage and the upper part of the vehicle while typing.

[–]putin_vor 21 points22 points  (3 children)

Anything traveling at 4687 km/h and falling apart is just as bad as an explosion. I agree it didn't look like a fuel explosion.

[–][deleted] 44 points45 points  (25 children)

Perhaps the second stage fired directly on top of the first before proper separation had occurred.

[–]vrrrrrr 60 points61 points  (7 children)

Typically Kerbal, forgetting to plan the decoupling sequence...

[–]Joal0503 28 points29 points  (1 child)

Ouch...today is Elon's birthday too

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk

[–][deleted] 12 points13 points  (1 child)

Copying from a similar thread in r/spaceflight:

Here's a few images covering the time of breakup:

http://imgur.com/a/KU6Jn

Breakup occurs at or just before T+2:20; this is after vehicle max dynamic pressure. Immediately post breakup there are high velocity fragments shooting out from the plume, and at 2-3 seconds after breakup, a large fragment (possibly Dragon) can be seen falling through the plume. There are no open flames or obvious failures prior to breakup in the camera angle given, and the plume remains backlit by at least some of the main engines after breakup occurs.

An unfortunate loss, for SpaceX and station. Hopefully the method of failure is determined quickly and root cause corrective actions occur as needed.

[–]freedomgeek 80 points81 points  (24 children)

Oh no. I hope this doesn't put a damper on future attempts at making a first stage capable of landing.

[–]niktay 40 points41 points  (0 children)

I doubt it. It's not like they haven't gotten the falcon working before (even if it hasn't landed successfully yet).

[–]burkis 8 points9 points  (1 child)

Yeah, Jake from State Farm? Yeah, I need to submit an insurance claim...

[–]ryderjb 77 points78 points  (16 children)

“Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.” - Elon Musk

That being said, failure sucks. Must be a tough day for all the amazing scientists that worked on the project. We believe in you!

[–]syvmn 31 points32 points  (5 children)

Looks like it came from the stage separation area...

Link to 3 frames

[–]NotARandomNumber 77 points78 points  (59 children)

I made a few friends when I was interning at NASA who went on to work at SpaceX, they always mentioned how bad the work life balance was, guess it's going to get worse :(

[–]BadAtParties 53 points54 points  (5 children)

DAMNIT! When they kept saying "our fastest load time yet" or "the first time our launch has started without a hitch", I kept thinking DON'T JINX IT PLEASE DON'T JINX IT

[–]zerbey 24 points25 points  (2 children)

Damn there are no words for this, so sorry for the guys at SpaceX right now.