Blue Origin’s launch pad rebuild timeline, according to SpaceX vets
▼ Summary
– In September 2016, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded during a static fire test, destroying the rocket, launch site, and the AMOS-6 satellite.
– On May 28, Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket also exploded during a static fire test, after reaching engine ignition.
– Both explosions occurred as the rocket programs neared higher launch cadences, and NASA relied on each for key missions.
– Both failures catastrophically damaged their respective launch sites.
– SpaceX veterans, like Hans Koenigsmann, who experienced the 2016 failure, found the New Glenn explosion triggering difficult memories.
A little over nine years ago, John Muratore, a former NASA engineer, was serving as launch director during a static fire test of a Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral. It was early September 2016, and propellant was already flowing into the vehicle ahead of a launch planned for two days later. Then, without warning, the rocket detonated. “It came out of nowhere, and it was really violent,” Muratore recalled. The explosion obliterated the rocket, heavily damaged the launch pad, and destroyed the AMOS-6 satellite that was already mated to the vehicle.
Fast forward to May 28 of this year. Blue Origin was conducting a static fire test of its new rocket, with the larger New Glenn vehicle positioned just a few miles down the Florida coast. The company had advanced further into the test sequence, reaching engine ignition, before its own rocket also erupted in flames.
For longtime observers of the Space Coast, the similarities between these two catastrophic events are striking. Both the Falcon 9 and New Glenn programs were on the verge of ramping up their launch cadence. At the time of the AMOS-6 failure, NASA was depending on the Falcon 9 to restore its ability to launch humans to orbit. Today, the agency is counting on New Glenn to play a critical role in its lunar ambitions. And in both cases, the explosions inflicted severe damage on their respective launch sites.
To gain insight into the road ahead for Blue Origin, Ars spoke with several SpaceX veterans who lived through the AMOS-6 disaster and the grueling months that followed. They worked relentlessly to get the Falcon 9 flying again and to rebuild the shattered Space Launch Complex-40.
Difficult memories come flooding back
“My AMOS-6 scar started itching when I saw the video of New Glenn,” said Hans Koenigsmann, the SpaceX engineer who led the failure investigation in the fall of 2016. “It’s really terrible.”
(Source: Ars Technica)
