REAL LIFE NEWS: SPACEX EXPLOSION COULD HAVE BEEN CAUSED BY HELIUM
by Hazed
On September 1, a Falcon 9 rocket owned by Space X blew up on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral. Now the company is trying to figure out what caused the explosion, and they think they have identified the culprit: helium.
To be specific, they have narrowed down the cause to the cryogenic helium system that feeds the second stage engine.
The explosion happened while the rocket was being fuelled, prior to a routine static firing, which is where the first-stage Merlin engines are fired while the booster is held to the ground. The firing didn’t happen because the rocket blew up before fuelling was complete.
The blast destroyed the rocket and its payload, and seriously damaged the launch complex. Fortunately, nobody was hurt.
Space X hasn’t said exactly how the helium system failed, but the most likely scenario is that one of the helium bottles in the LOX (liquid oxygen) tank in the second-stage rocket must have suffered a sudden, massive failure, such as bursting open or a valve failing. This allowed the helium to flash into gas in the warmer liquid oxygen, thus over-pressurising the tank, causing it to explode. (That’s the simplified explanation; the source link below goes into a lot more detail about how the rockets work and what could have happened when things went wrong.)
The accident could have serious consequences for commercial space flight because it calls into question the launch procedures that Space X plans to use to send astronauts into space. The company may have to redesign their procedures extensively.
Source: http://newatlas.com/spacex-falcon-9-explosion-helium/45594/
