Sea Dragon would have been a Super Heavy Lift Vehicle, some examples of these are StarShip, SLS, and Falcon Heavy. Sea Dragon would have lifted 550 tons into Low Earth Orbit. Sea Dragon was designed by Aerojet in the early 1960s. It would have launched from a launch site in the sea, meaning it wouldn’t need any giant launch pad infrastructure. Its main designer was a man named Robert Truax.
Sea Dragon had 3 parts, The Ballast Tank, The Rocket, and of course the payload. The first stage would be powered by a massive engine measuring at ~24 meters in diameter at the bottom of the nozzle, and producing ~350 MN of thrust. Meanwhile, the second stage would be powered by another massive engine measuring ~23 meters and producing 59 MN of thrust. The first stage burned a Kero-Lox Fuel meaning it burned Kerosene and Liquid Oxygen, while the second stage burned a Hydro-Lox Fuel meaning it burned Liquid Hydrogen and Liquid Oxygen. The first stage would burn for 81 seconds, the second stage burned for 260 seconds. The Ballast Tanks’ main function was to keep it straight up in the water and to lower the payload section to appoint that meant it could be accessed from the crews. A typical launch sequence would start with at least part of the rocket being refurbished and mated with the ballast and payload section while onshore. It was also at this time that the RP-1 was loaded. Once this was done it would be towed out to a launch site. Once at the launch site the LOX and LH2 would be produced via electrolysis, which is the process of using direct electrical current to split water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen. Truax suggested that during this phase the rocket be powered by a nuclear aircraft carrier. Then the ballast tanks would be filled with water sinking the rocket to around the second stage. Last-minute checks would be done then Sea Dragon would be launched. Sea Dragon was given the go for construction but in the end, it got canceled due to budget pressures. Many large vehicles like it that are referred to as “big dumb boosters” were also canceled.
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On May 29th 2021 SN4 committed its final static fire, before shortly after exploding and heavily damaging S,O,P A and the GSE connected to it, in todays article we will look into SN4, its legacy, and the effects of its explosion.
As the sun rose SN4 was getting ready for a Static Fire later that day it would be its fifth Static Fire. At 1:14 PM local time easily visible propellent loading operations began as the clock began to tick to SN4s fifth Static Fire, at 1:34 Pm LT the siren marking t-10 minutes till the test was heard and the action end of the countdown began. At 1:47 PM LT SN4 committed its fifth Static Fire and then stopping operation and detanking began. Two minutes later at 1:49 a sudden vent occurred near the bottom of the vehicle and the vent wasn't a small one and parts of it blowing towards the flare stack meaning at first it looked like it wasn't methane. This vent was likely caused by a popped hose which meant it was an uncontrolled vent. Seconds later SN4, the pad, and parts of the GSE where either damaged or destroyed, the explosion also knocked the Flare Stack which burned off the methane instead of venting it, out of commission since it stopped burning afterwards. Today the methane is recondensed in the recondenser instead of being burned off. After the explosion it was very clear that Pad A was extremely damaged if not destroyed, at the time Pad B was under construction for those who don't know Pad B is the Pad that SN5, 6, 8, 9, and 11 launched from. Now even though this looks like a failure and it was, but SN4 was the first Prototype to complete a Cryo Proof test after all of the prototypes like it before it failed there Cryo tests. This also means it was the first of its type to static fire, it was the second prototype to static fire after StarHopper's Static Fires. After SN4's explosion and the destruction of Pad A, It would force SpaceX to finish Pad B as soon as safely possible, if they wanted SN5 the next Test Vehicle, to do its campaign anytime soon. As was said earlier the explosion was likely caused by a failure in a GSE hose, which caused one of the two propellent to vent uncontrollably. Now due to the explosion it was most likely Methane that was venting out of the GSE hose/s. There will be a episode of my podcast Space Stuff by Teenage Astronaut, about this same topic but longer than this as it is intended as a quick read like all of my articles like this. Written by Joe the Teenage Astronaut Sources Times of when checkpoints occured Yes I am very late to the party but I've been very busy on the website and YT Channel but SN9 is back up and on the pad getting ready to launch and parts of SN17 have been spotted and same with super heavy.
On Thursday SpaceX did a test flight where Starship SN8 launched to about 12.5 KM and would attempt a belly flop landing (image below taken from spaceflightinsider.com). SpaceX's first attempt at launching SN8 was scrubbed due to a RAA (Raptor Auto Abort), one day later the second launch attempt was not scrubbed and SN8 launched for the first and final time. at T+01:40 one out of SN8's three Raptor Engines cut out as it was slowing down to get to 12.5 KM. At T+03:14 the second to last Raptor Engine shut off as SN8 approached 12.5 KM. The one remaining Raptor would stay on till T+04:39, there shortly after it would turn over on its belly to use it's "Elonirons" to have a controlled decent. At T+06:32 two out of three of SN8s Raptors reignited to attempt a landing, after this it left its belly flop and at T+06:39 one of the two reignited Raptor flamed out causing to much oxygen to enter the other causing its flame to go green. I will have a video on my YouTube Channel explaining why this happened. All time stamps were gather via SpaceX's stream links to all sources down below
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There will be a new article every fridayAuthorI am a Teenager who wants to become an Electrical Engineer that makes the electrical systems in rockets ArchivesCategories |