SpaceX Pressure Hammers Stuck Valves; Dragon's ISS Mission Back On Track

SpaceX's Dragon launch to the ISS earlier today went off smoothly, but the mission encountered trouble shortly after: three sets (of four) of the craft's maneuvering thrusters didn't work. CNET quotes SpaceX founder Elon Musk: "It looks like there was potentially some blockage in the oxidizer pressurization (system). It looks like we've been able to free that blockage, or maybe a stuck valve. We've been able to free that up by cycling the valves, essentially pressure hammering the valves, to get that to loosen. It looks like that's been effective. All the oxidizer tanks are now holding the target pressure on all four (thruster) pods. I'm optimistic we'll be able to bring all four of them up and then we'll work closely with NASA to figure out what the next step is for rendezvousing with space station," and follows up with the good news that "Shortly after the briefing concluded, engineers reported all four sets of thrusters were back on line and that testing was underway to verify the health of the system." Barring further problems, Dragon could reach the ISS as soon as Sunday.

Re:Anyone else sick of this guy?

[danomatika]

Nope. If he's going to make commercial space a reality, I'm all for hearing more from him.

Re:LOX Valve Icing Stikes Again?

[Taco Cowboy]

It could be that Musk already got that guy under employment, but the very best guy in this world still fall short of getting this problem licked, once and for all

Re:Anyone else sick of this guy?

[timeOday]

Personally, no. SpaceX and Tesla are both high in the running for "coolest company" in my book. The fact that the same guy is behind them both makes me think it's not just luck. (It would be so tempting to troll Apple at this point, but I think I'll just stop here).

Re:What is the worst that could happen

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd say down-voted due to armchair quarterbacking regarding the level of risk involved in continuing the mission and the excessively snide conclusion. I'm sure SpaceX engineers are far more knowledgeable of the risk factors than any of us meat blobs sitting in our chairs at home reading slashdot are. And as far as pressure hammer is concerned, I would guess (and call it what it is, nothing more than a guess), that they actually had some level of control of the amount of pressure they drove into the system, vs. a random water hammer in a set of pipes that occurs in a home or building.

Rediscovery

[DanielRavenNest]

SpaceX staff are rediscovering why we use clean rooms, thermal vacuum chambers, and a full understanding of the launch and space environment. Launch to orbit is unforgiving, and you need to make sure things are right before you try, or you get a higher failure rate.

Re:LOX Valve Icing Stikes Again?

[0123456]

Pressurisation would normally use gaseous helium, not liquid. You only need enough to keep the fuel tanks pressurised, so there's no great benefit to using liquid helium and lots of downsides.

Re:In other words .... ANOTHER failure ....

[Areyoukiddingme]

Slashdot is brimming with ULA and NASA partisans who will trash talk and outright lie about SpaceX at every opportunity. Given the utter failure of the SLS program to produce any hardware at all, and given the utter failure of the (illegal monopoly) ULA to compete with a price an order of magnitude lower than theirs, it's not surprising.

You are hearing the whines of failure trying to make themselves feel better. They will be forever bitter about SpaceX when they lose their jobs due to SpaceX successes.

CEO that knows his tech

[rekoil]

Could you imaging the CEO of Northrop Grumman or Lockheed being able to talk about the engineering issues at this level of detail? Or even the head of NASA? This is why I bought TSLA stock.

Re:In other words .... ANOTHER failure ....

[Spy Handler]

a lot of cushy jobs and contracts are gonna be lost due to SpaceX's super low cost launches. I'm surprised there isn't a bigger effort to discredit them and spread FUD, a la Edison electrocuting elephants with AC power.