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  • Re: =?UTF-8?B?4oCc4oCcSnVzdCBhIFNjcmF0Y2jigJ06IEVsb24gTXVzayBSZWFjdHMg?

    From Scott Dorsey@21:1/5 to lynnmcguire5@gmail.com on Sun Jun 22 09:38:42 2025
    Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:
    Almost an hour and a half later, Musk posted regarding a possible
    cause, Preliminary data suggests that a nitrogen COPV in the payload
    bay failed below its proof pressure. If further investigation confirms
    that this is what happened, it is the first time ever for this design.

    Strong oxidizers are scary no matter what. Cold strong oxidizers have
    even more to be scared about.

    The problem here is that this is now a production system and is no longer experimental... so failures like this are being paid for directly by
    the taxpayer.

    Given Trump and Musk's on-again off-again relationship, I could see anything
    at all happening. Maybe the contract will be cancelled completely and we
    won't be paying for SpaceX services at all. Maybe everything will be handed over to the contractor without any oversight. Maybe (it could happen!) there will be proper inspection and contract management like there was in the beginning. Maybe something else will happen.
    --scott


    --
    "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

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  • From James Nicoll@21:1/5 to Scott Dorsey on Sun Jun 22 14:42:03 2025
    In article <1039112$kcg$1@panix2.panix.com>,
    Scott Dorsey <kludge@panix.com> wrote:
    Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:
    Almost an hour and a half later, Musk posted regarding a possible
    cause, Preliminary data suggests that a nitrogen COPV in the payload
    bay failed below its proof pressure. If further investigation confirms
    that this is what happened, it is the first time ever for this design.

    Strong oxidizers are scary no matter what. Cold strong oxidizers have
    even more to be scared about.

    My older brother ran UW's ChemStores for a couple of decades, and
    collected graphic tales of horrific mishaps in a bid to convince
    UW's chemists to avoid unnecessary risk*.

    One story involved a delivery of LOX, a slow leak, and the drip
    drip drip of liquid oxygen onto asphalt. Turns out if you saturate
    asphalt with oxygen, you get something that is both unstable and
    capable of spectacular and swift energy production.

    * Such as carefully overcoming the threading on gas tanks to fill
    an N2 glove box with H2.
    --
    My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
    My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
    My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
    My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

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