[AR] Re: LOX-Methane Kabooms
- From: Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Arocket List <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 27 May 2016 00:18:34 -0400 (EDT)
On Wed, 25 May 2016, John Schilling wrote:
Do you by chance know the serial number or mission for the detonation
incident?
Unfortunately, no, as half-predicted, I draw a blank on that at the
moment. I'll poke around a bit further but am not optimistic. I have a
vague recollection, possibly wrong, of it being a test-stand accident
rather than a flight attempt.
I'm finding four probable bulkhead-reversal failures, and that looks
like it might be our Maximum Credible Event for propellant mixing.
One other case that might be worth checking on -- perhaps too severe to be
relevant for a normal launch environment -- is the Titan I dress rehearsal
at Vandenberg that demolished the Operational Suitability Test Facility
there, 3 Dec. 1960. (Stumpf's book on Titan II has an account of it.)
OSTF was essentially a prototype operational silo. Titan I, like the
late-model Atlas missiles, was a halfway step to silo launch: the missile
was stored and fueled (LOX/kerosene) in its vertical silo, but then
hoisted to the surface to launch. So if you ran a rehearsal countdown
that ended just before ignition, the fully-fueled missile now needed to be
lowered back down into the silo for defueling.
The elevator brakes failed, the missile hit bottom hard enough to rupture
the first-stage tanks, and 80ish tons of LOX/kerosene spilled into the
bottom of the silo. With 160t of elevator/launcher assembly above it for
tamping. :-)
Pieces of missile and silo were found over a mile away. Amazingly, nobody
was seriously hurt -- not even the defueling crew, waiting just outside
the silo's blast lock. (The blast lock's silo-side door failed, but the
outer door managed to hold.)
Henry
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