Ariane 5 Rocket Explosion

An integer conversion error caused this rocket to explode during ascent.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• rocket

[bestamerica]

this rocket is a ussr russia SS-18 missile explosion

[bikingchad]

No, it is an Ariane 5 from the European Space Agency. This launch was on June 4, 1996.

[ugowar]

Sure, fire the engineer for not writing perfect code. Did they also fire the guy responsible for test-as-you-fly testing? Because that was primarily his fault in not understanding the system engineering aspects of what shoving the same software on a different vehicle would do.

Stuff like that cost SpaceX a vehicle too when they thought they could just switch an ablative to a regen engine almost as an afterthought.

Ahh, aerospace is hard...

[indseytate718l]

This is one "sturdy" video. =p

[lanemays513]

Your video is a favorite on Cote d'Ivoire

[JulesAlexanderJordan]

@wbaiv that's what my teachers told me. The engines were stronger than on Ariane 4, so the rocket could go a bigger speed values, bigger than the computer could measure, and they took computer from Ariane 4 with enginer of Ariane 5 without updating the code, therefore comps gave up :D

[wbaiv]

They reused software and hardware from the successful Ariane 4. The Ariane 5 generated greater changes of value than the Ariane 4. Maybe there was an overflow in scaling a calculated value, but the root cause was that the software specification was "values up to x.yz", and Ariane 5 could generate larger values- deltas, rates, a dynamic quantity based on sensor data. At launch, the code looked at values it was getting (overflow? maybe) and concluded it couldn't be right. Both computers gave up.

[bombdoc42]

The fact that the consortium swapped the guidance system contractors between A4 and A5 may (or may not) have been a factor also.. :)

[blablubb12345]

@volvot5turbo

Not exactly. They used parts of the original Ariane 4 software and one of these parts couldn't handle the much higher initial acceleration values and caused an overflow while converting a floating point into an integer value. The guidance systems got totally wrong numbers and tried to correct them by gimballing all nozzles to the max...

Ironically, this part of software wasn't even needed on the Ariane 5.

Btw. Cluster consisted of 4 spacecraft, later launched on 2 Soyuz flights.

[volvot5turbo]

@bikingchad the first ariane 5 in fact ;-) ......

[volvot5turbo]

What happened was they uprated the launch vehicle from Araine 4 to Ariane 5 but did not uprate the software. In turn, it could not cimpute all the data and thought the rocket was going off course so tried to correct it's trajectory. Downwards. The self terminate mechanism on board decided it's was his turn to activate and....... this was also carrying 6 cluster satellites that were not insured as the owners thought they were getting a free ride........

[MrInsects]

@bestamerica no its not are you serious its araine 5 explosion and i was there when it launched i was on vacation in south america