New answers tagged abort
8
No. One of NASA's requirements for Crew Dragon and Starliner is that they are able to provide a full envelope abort window for the launch.
5.6.1.2 The CCTS shall provide abort capability from the launch pad until orbit insertion to protect for the following ascent failure scenarios (minimum list):
a. Complete loss of ascent thrust/propulsion.
b. ...
5
In the post-launch media event with Jim Bridenstine and Elon Musk, a similar question was asked and Elon said that the capsule would be able to "fly through the fireball" and explained how that even in a critical failure, the Falcon 9 doesn't really explode, rather it causes a huge fireball (no big pressure wave). Additionally, it was mentioned that the ...
3
I think you are working from a faulty assumption here.
...if the booster engines were still firing, would it collide with Dragon?
If the booster engines are still firing, there's no reason to trigger the escape -- other than severe control malfunction (a la Ariane 5), which wasn't what was tested here. Any kind of failure of the booster that is not a ...
18
You seem to think they were testing in ideal conditions. That's as far from truth as you can get. The abort happened at the moment in flight with worst aerodynamical conditions (called maxQ), when booster flies still low enough in atmosphere for significant drag to be present, yet fast enough already. If Dragon can escape at this moment, it can escape at any ...
23
It was a real failure (albeit triggered externally rather than accidentally), just not the only failure that can happen. and it is the worst case of a series of the most likely failure scenarios: multiple engine failure.
If you want to test every conceivable way a rocket can fail, you're looking at thousands if not hundreds of thousands of possible failure ...
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