First and last 4 engine firing on B

Michael, our biz VP, said at ISDC that we show the good and the bad. Which reminded me that I was planning to share this video when we flew, and we've flown.

This is a test on March 30th 2009, the first time we tried to fire all four engines at the same time. We'd tested them all individually; the engines were from the crashed XA-0.1, which had actually landed on some of them. We repaired them and got them running again, and were planning on attempting a flight the next day.

As you can see, all four engine started up just fine, which is a great demonstration that multiple engines aren't impossible.

But a host of things proceeded to go wrong. A seal in a solenoid valve broke, and the valve stuck open. A pressure switch broke. Some bugs in the software popped up for the first time.

We'd done enough testing such that any one of these errors would have been recoverable, but the chain of events here resulted in an igniter refusing to turn off, and burning a hole in the side of the engine. The white flash is part of the aluminum jacket burning.

We retired the engines, for they had a variety of other problems. In one month we refit the vehicle for a single engine and did flight 1, and the rest as you can see in my other videos.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• masten
• space
• rocket
• fire
• burn
• hole
• explode
• demolish
• boo
• junk

[ianmga]

Ben, can you explain to me how this video has 200k views and the in air relight has barely 17k? what the "hud" ?

[bbrockert]

@ianmga People like failure, and this one has it, though it isn't that impressive.

And, sadly, people who don't know rockets don't know how impressive the restart is. I've shown it to people and they've just been "huh".

[TheDynastar1]

is that liquid propellant

[bbrockert]

@TheDynastar1 LOX / ispopropanol.

[penuth]

@bbrockert how did you get into this profession? schooling, degree, certifications? i would like to know.

[bbrockert]

@penuth I showed up, and was persistent. I had a background in hardware, and some school in computer engineering.

[bbrockert]

@HelloMottoTaiKamu93 Holes rarely have points.

[bbrockert]

@7xrepiv This was all privately funded.

[Eagle1Division2]

@bbrockert I just saw the icon and followed it. Apparently the air relight video doesn't show up as much :P

[TheSlipknotshow]

vide sounds like shit wen you say firing on b

[hegemanskie]

One of your nozzles died with this test.

[BladerDark1]

Пооже ТНА накрылся.

[HaloMaster287]

R.I.P. Headphone users

[iamnull0]

@bbrockert Where is this restart video?

[slavehax]

That rocket ate Taco Bells burrito supreme.

[whiterabit998]

when it comes to testing i've always regarded the bad much more important than the good. so thanks for sharing! 

[AdashofMutant]

I love this Guys Keep Going

[SoundOfPollux]

@TheGratziani and probably smells the same....;-)