SpaceX Launch Abort Traced To Faulty Rocket Engine Valve

SpaceX Launch Was Aborted At Final Second.

By: Clara Moskowitz
Published: 05/19/2012 08:01 AM EDT on SPACE.com

This story was updated at 6:15 p.m. EDT.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A failed rocket engine valve appears to be responsible for the unexpected abort of a private SpaceX rocket launch before dawn on Saturday (May 19), officials said.

SpaceX was slated to blast off its unmanned Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket at 4:55 a.m. EDT (0855 GMT) here at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Just after igniting its main engines, the computer onboard the booster initiated an automatic abort due to a high pressure reading in one of the rocket's nine main engines.

Dragon was due to fly to the International Space Station to become the first non-governmental vehicle to berth there. The spacecraft's next chance to launch is Tuesday (May 22) at 3:44 a.m. EDT (0744 GMT), followed by a potential opportunity Wednesday (May 23) at 3:22 a.m. EDT (0722 GMT).

This afternoon SpaceX engineers examined the rocket, and traced the problem back to the check valve on the Falcon 9's fifth Merlin engine (the booster has a total of nine).

"We have discovered root cause and repairs are underway," SpaceX officials said in a statement Saturday evening.

Technicians are now working to replace the failed valve for a second try at launch.

"Those repairs should be complete tonight," officials said. "We will continue to review data on Sunday. If things look good, we will be ready to attempt to launch on Tuesday, May 22nd at 3:44 AM Eastern."

The flight is a trial run for SpaceX's plan to deliver cargo, and eventually crew, to the space station. The mission is partially funded by NASA's COTS (Commercial Orbital Transportation Services) program, and the firm has a NASA contract to fly 12 delivery missions to the outpost once test flights are completed.

"We're ready to support when SpaceX is ready to go," Alan Lindenmoyer, manager of NASA's commercial crew and cargo program, said during a news briefing following the launch attempt.

Officials from both NASA and SpaceX have emphasized the uncertain nature of test flights, and said that the main goal was to gather more data about the vehicle.

"This is not a failure," SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said. "We aborted with purpose. It would have been a failure if we had lifted off with an engine trending in this direction."

You can follow SPACE.com assistant managing editor Clara Moskowitz on Twitter @ClaraMoskowitz. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

• Photos: SpaceX Set for Historic Launch to Space Station
• SpaceX to Space Station: Complete Coverage
• SpaceX Dragon Launch Aborted At Last Second | Video

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14 FASCINATING FACTS ABOUT SOLAR ECLIPSES

Loading Slideshow

• How savvy are you about eclipses? You probably know that a solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the Earth and the sun. But did you know that the shadow of a solar eclipse travel at 1,100 miles an hour at the equator and up to 5,000 miles an hour at the poles? And that's just one of this slideshow's fascinating facts, as compiled by NASA scientist Sten Odenwald. Picture taken on Easter Island, 3700 km off the Chilean coast in the Pacific Ocean, on July 11, 2010.

• During an eclipse, local animals and birds often prepare for sleep or behave confusedly. Picture taken in Bucharest, Romania on January 4, 2011.

• Before the advent of modern atomic clocks, studies of ancient records of solar eclipses allowed astronomers to detect a 0.001 second per century slowing down in Earth's rotation. Picture taken on July 22, 2009 from the observatory of the University of the Philippines in Manila.

• The width of the path in which a total eclipse is visible is at most 167 miles wide. Picture taken at the Life-giving Trinity Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Moscow, Russia on January 4, 2011.

• The longest duration for a total solar eclipse is 7.5 minutes. Picture taken on January 04, 2011 in Locon, northern France.

• Partial solar eclipses can be seen up to 3,000 miles from the "track" of totality. Picture taken in Baihata village, 30 kms from Guwahati, the capital city of the northeastern state of Assam in India on July 22, 2009.

• The maximum number of solar eclipses (partial, annular, or total) is 5 per year, and there are at least 2 solar eclipses per year somewhere on the Earth. Picture taken in the Indian city of Varanasi on July 22, 2009.

• Only partial solar eclipses can be observed from the North and South Poles. Picture taken over the statue of late Chinese leader Mao Zedong in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, on July 22, 2009.

• Light filtering through leaves on trees casts crescent shadows as totality approaches. Picture taken on July 22, 2009 in Seoul, South Korea.

• "Shadow bands" are often seen on the ground as the eclipse's peak approaches. Picture taken on January 04, 2011 in Rennes, western France.

• During totality, the horizon is illuminated in a narrow band of light, because an observer is seeing distant localities not under the direct umbra, or area of darkness, of the Moon's shadow. Picture taken on January 4, 2011 in Old Damascus, Syria.

• Local temperatures often drop 20 degrees or more near totality. Picture taken January 4, 2011 in Italy.

• Every eclipse begins at sunrise at some point in its track and ends at sunset about half way around the world from the start point. Picture taken January 4, 2011 by the Hinode satellite.

• Nearly identical eclipses (total, annual, or partial) occur after 18 years and 11 days, or every 6,585.32 days (Saros Cycle). Picture taken in Lahore, Pakistan on January 4, 2011.

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Comments

[nitidivine]

02:29 AM on 05/21/2012

http://liveoncampus.com/wire/show/3382004
Photos: 8 Moon-Landing Hoax Myths--Busted
Forty years after U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the moon, many conspiracy theorists still insist the Apollo 11 moon landing was an elaborate hoax. Examine the photographic evidence, and find out why experts say some of the most common claims simply don't hold water.

[crankyCrackPot]

04:05 PM on 05/21/2012

Republican science deniers still think the world is flat... www.theflatearthsociety.org.

Don't y'all have an Inquisition to plan, scientists to stake and burn?

You've always been on the wrong side of history and you always will be.

[jsarets]

08:03 PM on 05/20/2012

Elon Musk tweets that computer simulations show the Falcon 9 would have been able to launch successfully with the faulty check valve, but better to stop and fix.

[crankyCrackPot]

04:07 PM on 05/21/2012

Agreed... faster, smaller and cheaper means more distributed rather than eliminated risk.
Headlines and outcry would be the same tho regardless of whether it was a trillion dollar or a few million dollar loss.

[Jarrod Putnam]

07:50 PM on 05/20/2012

I don't see how people can call this a failure. If the Falcon 9's flight computer can detect abnormal engine pressure while almost simultaneously aborting the launch sequence within 1 second or so of the actual launch itself, how is that a failure of any sorts? This just shows the level of safety measures that have been put into place to protect multi million dollar pieces of machinery and in the near future, human life. Id say this was a success in it some sense.

[WorkhelpWorkhelp]

03:15 AM on 05/21/2012

Indeed. You are right. Success to these people.

[turboturd]

06:35 PM on 05/20/2012

Don't abort that poor launch!!!! If your not Pro-launch you should just d ie!!!

[cabinetmaniac]

05:45 PM on 05/20/2012

I think I might get up and watch it.

☮

[CSDofNM]

05:02 PM on 05/20/2012

Better to shut down than blow up.

[EndTheGOP]

04:48 PM on 05/20/2012

Wonder who the valve manufacturer was...

[edtheengineer]

05:57 PM on 05/20/2012

Like most manufactured products in this country, it was probably made offshore and re-bagged for sale to NASA.

[jsarets]

06:31 PM on 05/20/2012

Made by Marotta in New Jersey. They are generally considered to be one of the best valve manufacturers in the world. They've been there and done that, including X-15, Mercury, Redstone, Atlas, Gemini, Titan, Apollo, Saturn, Space Shuttle, and Delta IV.

http://www.marotta.com/space/fluid-controls-for-space-systems/check-valves.html

[Galaxie]

06:38 PM on 05/20/2012

Thxs.. Glad we still make things... Outsourcing because of low wages overseas is destroying the US...

[bikefolder32]

04:43 PM on 05/20/2012

Puts a new cloud over the "news" that Ashton Kutcher and Richard Branson were scheduled to be on a space flight sometime in the next year or so. They might reconsider...

[erhuh]

05:11 PM on 05/20/2012

They arent going on SpaceX but on a suborbital flight. Much easier and cheaper to do that than reach orbit.

Every launch system on Earth has had delays. That's just how it is.

[theyedster]

04:31 PM on 05/20/2012

The found a used teabag caught up in the check valve.

[KOSSNC]

04:22 PM on 05/20/2012

So much for private industry.

[KOSSNC]

04:23 PM on 05/20/2012

Space X needs more government oversight.

[erhuh]

05:12 PM on 05/20/2012

Shuttle had many launch scrubs. That's the nature of rockets.

[Durango]

04:14 PM on 05/20/2012

It is called Rocket Science for a reason.

[Timesachanging]

06:57 AM on 05/21/2012

Rocket Science is pretty straight forward, Newton's Laws and all that. Rocket ENGINEERING, now that's complicated! ;-{)

[ThinkCreeps]

03:56 PM on 05/20/2012

System performs exactly as specified, in response to a hot failure.
Ready for a re-try in 48 hours.
Something of a success, I reckon.

[trueblueredstater]

03:44 PM on 05/20/2012

To the private enterprise enthusiasts:
Remember, SpaceX is a brand new enterprise. It has not had the time to get bloated the way NASA did.
Those of us who were awake during the 50's and 60's remember NASA as a fast-moving, creative organization. They took us from the Jupiter-C / Juno launching less than 50 pounds in 1958 to a manned moon landing and return in a dozen years. If Nixon hadn't been still torked-off about the space program being JFK's baby, we might have had adequate funding for the Shuttle - the design that actually got built was like the third-most desirable alternative. So the funding was barely enough, and the multiple layers of management took over NASA.... sort of like your typical bloated American corporation.

The new companies have not been around long enough to build up management turf wars & red tape....If they can stay small, they might still be able to get things done.

[bikefolder32]

04:34 PM on 05/20/2012

But it requires them building a product that actually works, first.

They're just a big private money pit looking for a place to land until they've successfully launched a good 7 or 8 rockets.

[erhuh]

05:15 PM on 05/20/2012

They've already had two succesfful F9 launches and this is still the testing phase.

Fortunately the government is paying them for completion of milestones and cargo delivered through the COTS program. Much better and cheaper than cost-plus. If they can't do it, they arent getting paid.

[ThePeoriaKid]

02:52 PM on 05/20/2012

Smart bunch at SpaceX.

[Daemon Process]

02:20 PM on 05/20/2012

Next time; based on the information at hand it was not an egregious display of errant design intent. And I agree with the nomenclature used, the best way to fail an (unmanned) test flight is not to learn anything of value.