A little surprising considering there was a helium valve leak they detected like a month ago that caused a scrub, but decided it wasn’t worth taking it apart to fix, just send it and it will probably be fine.
They investigated it and found out that the thrusters wouldn’t stop working unless there were 3 more leaks of that size, or a single leak of 100x that size.
The affected thruster system is the backup for the backup for the system they actually use to maneuver.
Oh I’m aware of how small the issue is in comparison. It’s just ridiculous that there is an issue like this at this point. They’re almost a decade behind schedule, and received nearly double the funding of their direct competitor who has launched their comparable system nearly 30 times, with 13 crewed launches. They were supposed" to be the faster and more reliable option because of their legacy history, instead they’ve just shown that they really cannot compete in the modern launch market.
We need multiple options for redundancy, safety, and lowering or removing reliance on foreign launch capabilities… and this is just a terrible option in comparison.
Hasn’t had an uncontrolled boom yet. Only controlled booms so far.
A little surprising considering there was a helium valve leak they detected like a month ago that caused a scrub, but decided it wasn’t worth taking it apart to fix, just send it and it will probably be fine.
They investigated it and found out that the thrusters wouldn’t stop working unless there were 3 more leaks of that size, or a single leak of 100x that size.
The affected thruster system is the backup for the backup for the system they actually use to maneuver.
Oh I’m aware of how small the issue is in comparison. It’s just ridiculous that there is an issue like this at this point. They’re almost a decade behind schedule, and received nearly double the funding of their direct competitor who has launched their comparable system nearly 30 times, with 13 crewed launches. They were supposed" to be the faster and more reliable option because of their legacy history, instead they’ve just shown that they really cannot compete in the modern launch market.
We need multiple options for redundancy, safety, and lowering or removing reliance on foreign launch capabilities… and this is just a terrible option in comparison.
And helium is the least bad thing to have leak into your ship