[AR] SpaceX iced TEA

  • From: Ed Kelleher <Pres@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: arocket <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 22 Nov 2013 14:05:41 -0500

AW&ST and SpaceNews are reporting that SpaceX says their 2nd Stage Falcon 9 reignition problem was due to frozen ignitor fluid lines.


TEA freezes at 227K and TEB even colder than that, 180K.

Has TEA/TEB ignition been used before on 2nd Stage? Seems most upper stages are hypergolic, or augmented spark type ignition.
Apparently it hasn't been used much on American launchers.

Ed Kelleher


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