Questions tagged [testing]
Questions about the procedure of using a piece of equipment to find imperfections or problems.
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What safety protocols did this Pythom Space rocket crew ignore?
The video below of Pythom Space's first rocket test has raised a few eyebrows
The video prompted hundreds of replies on Twitter, including some from rather horrified rocket scientists. "We knew ...
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Why is there a large wooden ball on Mariner 3's magnetometer?
Wood is good for certain niche space exploration applications, but the one below is not for spaceflight. According to the documentation for the archived photo:
Several spacecraft were built for the ...
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Why was AMOS-6 mounted on the rocket for a test fire?
I understand that the static test is a general test of pre-launch procedures, but risking a multi-million dollar payload for a test seems remarkable. Couldn't they use a mass simulator or something? ...
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Why is there any launch window at all for the Falcon Heavy test flight?
Why is the window only ~3 hours long, why not 2? why not 5? why not "until it launches"? I'm guessing range safety, they could only get a TFR that long?
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Why no parachutes in the Orion AA2 abort test?
On July 2, 2019, the Ascent Abort 2 test of the Orion spacecraft was performed, with the Orion command module ascending on a solid rocket booster, then firing its launch escape system to safely ...
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Why was the SpaceX abort test not initiated by real booster failure?
Today (2020-01-19) SpaceX had a successful flight abort test. As far as I can understand, at a specific altitude, Crew Dragon fired its engines and escaped from the rocket.
This test looks like a ...
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Was Amos 6 insured for pre-launch operations?
The Falcon 9 rocket, complete with the Amos 6 payload, just blew up (Or RUDed) on the launch pad. I believe the standard language for most launch insurances is that it is only covered after "...
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What is SpaceX doing differently with Starship to avoid it exploding like the N1?
Both Starship and the N1 have more than 30 rocket engines. The N1 exploded after having a chain reaction from a failed engine.
N1 rocket engines:
Starship’s rocket engines:
Unlike the N1, SpaceX has ...
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What was NASA's Tire Assault Vehicle?
Why did NASA build a vehicle specifically designed to attack aircraft tires?
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Could Mars Rovers be lighter or faster if they didn't have to be tested on Earth?
Watching this video of Perserverance being tested on Earth, it occurred to me that requiring it to stand, drive, climb, etc. under 1g is, in some sense, overkill. Could this (or other) rovers be made ...
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Why does SpaceX have a launch window for a pad abort test?
SpaceX has announced a pad abort test for the Dragon crew capsule on May 5th. They have a 4 hour launch window for the test.
There is no destination, so why would there be a launch window in this ...
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How does a simple construction keep a firing rocket on the ground?
Today I have seen this report of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket test firing. The force of a burning rocket is tremendous, and in the video we see an apparently simple construction keeping the rocket (or ...
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How does the Saturn V Dynamic Test Stand work?
This photo instantly provokes a ton of questions in me:
It shows the Dynamic Test Stand at Marshall SFC with the Enterprise, which was a Space Shuttle test vehicle, suspended for vibration testing. ...
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Why is the F9-029 Amos 6 case more complex than the F9-020 CRS-7 explosion?
In the F9-029 Amos 6 mission failure at the launch pad, a "fast fire" happened near the 2nd stage of Falcon 9 FT. In F9-020 CRS-7 mission, an explosion happened in flight (again in the 2nd stage) a ...
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What does the ATOLL programming language look like?
During the Apollo program, checkout tests of launch vehicle and spacecraft systems were gradually being automated, moving away from the manual processes during the early years of the space program to (...
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How is sunlight simulated in spacecraft testing, given its brightness?
How could a light source like the sun be approximated on Earth for testing, given how much brighter it is in space than anything else?
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Why was Dragon sent to the isolation room?
I'm asking about this photograph that was published on SpaceX Flickr photostream, which I also noticed in a few recent articles (e.g. this one) about the upcoming Crew Dragon pad abort test:
SpaceX ...
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Why don't we put an EmDrive in space?
Once again the impossible drive is in the forefront of public news.
But thus far, I am still unimpressed. NASA seems to have thrown a lot of resources, to test the viability of the EmDrive. But I am ...
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What is the new horizontal test stand at SpaceX's McGregor, TX facility meant to test?
If you look on Google Maps, at the McGregor, TX test site, you can see the old test stand (Labelled A) where they test each Falcon 9 first stage for a 9 engine fire as an acceptance test before ...
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Will the January 2018 government shutdown affect the Falcon Heavy launch?
The Falcon Heavy is currently undergoing testing at Kennedy Space Center's Pad 39A, which SpaceX is leasing from NASA. The hold-down test firing, according to the previously-linked article, may occur ...
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How does NASA have permission to test a nuclear engine?
In this article on nasa.gov (https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-darpa-will-test-nuclear-engine-for-future-mars-missions) it mentions that NASA will test a nuclear rocket engine for future crewed ...
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Primary payload influence on hitchhiking CubeSat integration and testing?
Integration is the process of assembling or otherwise combining the separate subsystems into your final overall system.
Testing involves making sure your components, subsystems, and overall system ...
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What is simulated payload and why are they used?
I read that Angara 5 will carry a "payload simulator" on its first test flight tomorrow Dec. 23, 2014. But the Indian GSLV mk.III recently flew for the first time with a prototype of the ISRO crewed ...
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Testing flight characteristics before actual flight in model rockets?
I do a lot of scratch design/building of model rockets, but one of the things that I've struggled with is testing the models I come up with.
Some of them are purely intended to be static display ...
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Was the SK-1 spacesuit tested in flight prior to Gagarin's historic mission?
April 12 is the 60th anniversary of the first human spaceflight, Vostok 1. As no human had previously been to space, it was also a test of the SK-1 spacesuit that cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin wore.
This ...
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Have SRBs or SSMEs ever launched without a space shuttle?
It seems to me that the April 12, 1981 launch of Columbia (STS-1) was the manned spaceflight with the most untested hardware of any manned space launch. Even the Vostok and Mercury launch systems had ...
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How does static test firing before launch affect design of rocket mass and structure?
Some launchers, like Falcon 9 recently as in a video clip linked to below, and I think some other launchers since long ago in the space race history, test their engines before launch by firing them ...
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What was the "sour milk smell" during the 1967 Apollo 1 testing?
In the first edition of Andrew Chaikin's 1994 book, "A Man on the Moon, there is a paragraph in chapter 1 which talks about troubles the Apollo 1 testing crew were going through.
Chaikin states that ...
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What is a rocket engine spin up test?
Recently I came across internet about SpaceX's Booster 7 explosion in a ball of fire during an engine spin up test. I searched Google about rocket engine spin up test but I got no hit. What is a ...
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Why did the SpaceX Starship MK1 prototype pop?
During a pressurization test on November 20th, 2019, SpaceX's Starship MK1 prototype "popped" at the SpaceX facility in Boca Chica TX.
Do we know what caused this apparent failure? Some claim that ...
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What is NASA doing to improve the supersonic parachute for the third LDSD test?
Last month, on June 8, 2015, NASA ran the second Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) flight test off the island of Kauai, Hawaii. The inflatable decelerator portion of the test was successful, ...
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How many of these six military "orbital threat" techniques have been demonstrated in a (more or less) publicly recognized way?
If you are having a good day then under no circumstances should you read the US Defense Intelligence Agency's Challenges to Security in Space1 (Information cutoff date, January 2019) linked in Axios' ...
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Through what mechanisms would SpaceX test and examine the returned CRS-5 first stage?
A significant minority of the users over at the /r/SpaceX Reddit community seem to be of the opinion that SpaceX will attempt to reuse the Falcon 9 CRS-5 first stage provided it lands on the downrange ...
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How do you test-fire vacuum engines in a vacuum chamber? Why doesn't it fill up almost instantly from the exhaust and spray (deluge) water?
How are vacuum optimized engines tested without disintegrating them? is an excellent question as it's attracted quite a number of informative and diverse answers.
@Uwe's answer informs us that there ...
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What is it about parachutes that makes people always want to "re-invent the wheel"?
For technology that involves complex engineering issues, standardization and specialization is extremely helpful. If I want to design a complex ASIC IC I don't design it from scratch, I just drag-and-...
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Documentation and testing for a CubeSat launch?
If I had a CubeSat sitting on my desk ready to go today, what documentation and testing would I need to do before I could get it launched?
Presumably the launch provider won’t just launch anything I ...
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Why will SpaceX do Pad Abort test from a truss, not a real first and second stage?
SpaceX will be doing a Pad Abort test at LC-40 in Florida for the Dragon V2 vehicle to close out the CCiCAP criteria.
They will not be using a real first or second stage, instead building some kind ...
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Why is a purging process necessary for static firing test of liquid rocket engines?
In Chapter 7 of Modern Engineering for Design of Liquid propellant Rocket Engines by Huzel and Huang, mentions the following engine cut off procedure.
The cutoff sequence usually consists of
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How well did the Orbital Sciences' Cygnus cargo craft perform?
Regardless of the GPS discrepancy, Cygnus completed its mission. How well did it do, and, does SpaceX now have a proper competitor?
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Progress of the raptor engine
I have seen that SpaceX has tested a scaled down version of the raptor, but that was about a year ago. Does anyone know the current progress? Do they have a full scale model? Have they hot fired a ...
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Dragon Pad Abort hot fire, how much cleanup work was needed?
The day before the Pad Abort test attempt (May 5, 2015) SpaceX test fired the SuperDraco engines in a hot fire. Similar to how they test the Falcon 9 a day or three before launch, the engines spin up ...
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How do engineers know new engines will work nominally once they reach space?
Obviously you test fire a new engines as many times as you see fit on earth, but how do you know the effect the vacuum of space (or really the lack of gravity/air) will have on a new engine?
Is it ...
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RS-25 Hot Fire Test
Yesterday, NASA Stennis successfully completed a hot fire test of Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25 a.k.a SSME. It was noted in the webcast before the test started that they were testing the 'engine controller'...
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What will the Falcon Heavy maiden flight launch as its payload?
I know that Elon Musk has stated that SpaceX will try to launch the "silliest thing imaginable" on the maiden flight of the Falcon Heavy, but will it be a Dragon capsule on top or a special SpaceX ...
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Why doesn't this SpaceX rocket test fire use water sprays?
I know that rocket launches always have water towers spray water all around when the rocket is launching to suppress the extreme sounds and shockwaves generated by the launch and ensure the rocket ...
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What Dragon was used in May 2015 Pad Abort test?
Originally it was suggested by Elon Musk that the Dragon shown at the unveiling was the test article, or at least large components of it, to be used in the Pad Abort (May 6, 2015) and then the Max ...
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Disposal pool during RS-25 engine test?
Nasa recently did a test firing of an RS-25 rocket, and released a video of it. Here's a frame grab:
Note that pool of water at the bottom right, with a pipe leading to it, and clouds of steam coming ...
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What is Australia's Bartolomeo platform? When does it arrive at the ISS; when and where will it be attached?
In this answer to Will the Neumann drive start testing aboard the ISS some time in 2018? I first heard about Australia's upcoming Bartolomeo platform, which will be used for testing things such as the ...
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How does Orion take its bath (Hydro Impact Basin)?
In 2011 the NASA Langley Research Center completed the Hydro Impact Basin for conducting drop tests of the Orion spacecraft.
How much water is the basin filled with for these tests? Does the Orion ...
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What is the purpose of the Dream Chaser carry test?
I was reading that recently the Dream Chaser completed a carry test. Seems like they hung it from a helicopter and flew around with it. What benefit would this have over a wind tunnel test?
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