[AR] Re: AW&ST Space Tourism Accident Impact.
- From: Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Arocket List <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 3 Jan 2020 13:55:29 -0500 (EST)
On Fri, 3 Jan 2020, roxanna Mason wrote:
Saturn 1,1B&5 100% thanks to von Braun
Well, if you sort of squint a bit at Apollo 6: nasty first-stage Pogo, a
double engine failure in the second stage, a relight failure in the third
stage that prevented putting the spacecraft on the desired trajectory, and
chunks of skin lost from the spacecraft adapter on the way up. That
launch was a lot closer to a failure than a success. But the Pogo wasn't
a big problem with no crew aboard; the book said a double engine failure
was unsurvivable but the rocket amazingly managed to limp into orbit
anyway; the spacecraft had enough propulsion of its own that some hasty
reprogramming got it close to the planned trajectory; and the skin loss
wasn't bad enough to cause a structural failure. So it avoided any major
embarrassment, and could be spun as more or less a success.
And if you quietly overlook the violent pump-amplified Pogo that almost
shook Apollo 13's second stage apart. This would have gotten rather more
attention if it hadn't been overshadowed by later events on the same
flight. (The discussion of it in 13's Saturn V Flight Report is a real
masterpiece of bland understatement, presenting all the facts while never
saying anything that might catch a reporter's eye. You need to understand
the numbers to realize how serious it was.)
Henry
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