William Atkins
Saturday, 31 October 2009 20:42
Science -
Space
Page 2 of 3
The booster recovery ship
Freedom Star recovered the booster and the solid rocket motor, and towed them back to Florida for a detailed inspection.
The one problem encountered on the $445 million flight was a first-stage parachute system failure, which resulted in extensive damage to the rocket then it hit the waters of the Atlantic Ocean harder than expected.
The pilot and drogue parachutes were deployed first. Then, the three large primary parachutes were inflated.
However, one of these parachutes deflated in the first-stage of the deployment and another one partially deflated during the second-stage of the deployment.
Bob Ess, NASA Ares 1-X program manager, stated,
"The fact that it didn't work is not a problem. You've heard me say it over and over again: We want to find these things that are not quite working. That's why we did this test -- to see how everything would work." [Florida Today: “
Despite dent, rocket test goes 'rock-steady'”]
In addition, vibrations during the test were significantly lower than what was predicted by computer models and wind tunnel tests performed earlier during the development of the rocket.
These “thrust oscillations” happen when the solid propellant inside the casing of the rocket is expended.
Ess stated,
"It's only a preliminary look, but so far, the oscillations look very small. At this point, there is nothing that indicates that thrust oscillation was even a factor." [Florida Today]
Page three concludes.
