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NASA and SpaceX confirmed Wednesday that they are targeting November 14 for the launch of the Crew-1 mission which will transport four astronauts to the International Space Station.
Originally scheduled for Halloween, NASA delayed the launch after an engine problem disrupted an October 2 launch attempt of a Falcon 9 rocket, at T-2 seconds, carrying an aviation GPS III satellite. American.
During a conference call with reporters on Wednesday, SpaceX’s Hans Koenigsmann explained what happened with the October 2 launch disruption and what was being done to address the issue in the future.
Two of the rocket’s nine first stage engines fired early during the early October launch attempt, and this triggered the automatic shutdown of the engines. (If the interrupt hadn’t triggered, chances are nothing bad would have happened, but Koenigsmann said that in certain extreme scenarios, the rattle of an early ignition could have caused significant damage to the Merlin engines.)
Replicating the problem
SpaceX engineers removed the two engines and shipped them from Florida to the company’s test site in McGregor, Texas, where they were able to replicate the problem. They found that a relief valve inside the gas generator – a tiny rocket inside the engine that starts and powers its machinery – was clogged with a masking paint similar to nail polish. They were able to show that removing the paint from the vent hole allowed the engines to start normally.
This paint is applied during an anodizing process to treat the aluminum components of the gas generator. It would have to be removed later, but in the case of these two motors, a small amount of material was trapped in a hole less than 2mm in diameter.
“So it was really a great discovery in that sense, and it allowed us to fix something that is very subtle but can obviously have a negative impact on engine operation,” Koenigsmann said.
Next, SpaceX inspected other engines in its fleet (the company only inspected the new boosters, as the first stages of the Falcon 9 that have already flown are not prone to this problem). SpaceX found that two of the engines of the Falcon 9 rocket that will be used for the launch of the crew-1 also had this problem. Those two engines are now being replaced with new Merlins.
The new plan
If all goes according to plan, SpaceX will launch two new first stages of the Falcon 9 ahead of crew 1: the GPS III mission on November 4 and the Sentinel-6 mission for NASA on November 10. Provided the launches go well, NASA will likely stick to the November 14 date for the Crew-1 mission that will send NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, along with the Exploration Agency’s mission specialist. Japanese aerospace company Soichi Noguchi, at the International Space Station. Their Crew Dragon would meet with the space station approximately 8.5 hours after launch at 19:49 EST (00:49 UTC on Nov 15).
This lacquer problem was surprised as SpaceX has literally launched hundreds of new Merlin 1D rocket engines over the past decade and, until now, it hadn’t encountered this problem with the masking agent.
“It’s certainly possible that we’ve had cases before, and they were sensibly so harmless that we completely lost them,” Koenigsmann said. It is also possible that a small process has been modified so that all the lacquer has not been removed, as this particular treatment is done by an outside vendor. But, he admitted, “It’s hard to explain how it works for so many years and then, all of a sudden, you see it emerge in the data.”
What Koenigsmann seems confident about is that the problem will not recur. The company’s engineers now understand this, they know how to look for it and will no longer be surprised. “The rocket is tough and requires a lot of attention to detail,” he said. “It’s always a challenge. It’s always difficult. You have to be on tiptoe to get it right.”
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