Confirmed: SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule was destroyed during recent test fire mishap

[Polycount]

In context: Last month, we reported on SpaceX's successful launch of its unmanned "Crew Dragon" capsule. That was pretty huge news at the time, and after it successfully landed without a hitch, things were looking very positive for future Crew Dragon tests (and eventual crewed flights). Unfortunately, things haven't quite panned out as SpaceX hoped.

During a recent "static test fire" at Cape Canaveral, the capsule caught fire as the result of an "anomaly," though SpaceX has not yet elaborated on what that means.

The status of Crew Dragon after this dilemma was unclear, but it has now been officially confirmed that the capsule was destroyed. "...just prior to when we wanted to fire the SuperDraco, there was an anomaly, and the vehicle was destroyed," SpaceX vice president of mission assurance Hans Koenigsmann said in a statement. " SuperDraco, for the unaware, is the name SpaceX gave to the Crew Dragon's engine.

Koenigsmann says SpaceX's engineers have been given "no reason" to believe there is anything amiss with the SuperDraco engines themselves, so it seems likely that some other unforeseen issue cropped up during the launch. Fortunately, there were no injuries.

As previously stated, the exact cause of the capsule's destruction is unknown, but SpaceX and NASA are working "very closely" to find out what happened. When the organizations find the cause, they will likely disclose it to the public - with a little luck, it may have been a relatively small issue, which can hopefully be rectified before any future launches.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/79919-confirmed-spacex-crew-dragon-capsule-destroyed-during-recent.html

 

[VitalyT]

Another way of looking at it is that the first attempt was a fluke.

Q: How many astronauts does it take to change a light bulb?
A: One. But you need the rest of the planet to convince remaining 2% of the population that it did happen.

 

[NicktheWVAHick]

In the ‘70s we sent several groups of men safely to the moon & back....now we can’t even get an empty capsule off the ground. In the ‘70s we were traveling commercially at Mach 2, now we are stuck at 560mph top speed. In the ‘70s we advanced a widespread vaccination program to eradicate common diseases. Today we have widespread measles outbreaks. It really was the greatest generation. Now we just have stupid people who post pictures of their dancing cat on Facebook. Welcome to the future. Good luck, space cadets.

 

[Plutoisaplanet]

Another way of looking at it is that the first attempt was a fluke.

Q: How many astronauts does it take to change a light bulb?
A: One. But you need the rest of the planet to convince remaining 2% of the population that it did happen.

And the actual way to look at it is: that’s why they do these tests, to find problems in design and improve on them. Note that SpaceX’s first 3/4 rockets failed. Yet today they use their rockets all the time and successes are not flukes, the failures are.

 

[Uncle Al]

The obvious problem with commercialization of such a project is the need to build it for the least amount of money. NASA was known to over design by a factor of 3x to 5x and even then they still had issues. If thats any indicator, SpaceX is bound to have issues. Apparently early reports were wrong that claimed the issue was with the escape rocket. If something else it has to make you wonder what they would put in a crew capsule that was so explosive? Liquid Oxygen would be the first most popular theory but that too remains to be seen ......

 

[Jeff Re]

In the ‘70s we sent several groups of men safely to the moon & back....now we can’t even get an empty capsule off the ground.

Don't forget that we lost three men in a launchpad fire.

 

[wiyosaya]

I read elsewhere, today, that there was an explosion.

Fortunately, there were no occupants as the condition of the craft makes it look as if there would have been serious injuries or deaths if the craft was occupied.

 

[captaincranky]

I don't know what to say about this. Oh wait yes I do....., "Space-X, and by extension Elon Musk, have become the 'Michaels Bay', of space exploration".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bay

Don't forget that we lost three men in a launchpad fire.

How very true. But since that happened over fifty years ago, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_1 it would appear that Space-X , and by extension Elon Musk, although being contracted by NASA, haven't learned from its progenitor's mistakes

But keep in mind that "Falcon Heavy", did manage to put Musk's Tesla into deep space.

Accordingly, I don't think Space-X needs to, "sweat the small stuff", like this itsy-bitsy explosion .