Why Rockets Fail: 1997 Delta II Explosion - When a Booster Comes Unzipped
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 พ.ค. 2019
- On 17th January 1997 a Delta II rocket exploded seconds after launch and scattered burning debris over the surrounding area, it's one of the most spectacular rocket failures, and it was caused by a solid rocket motor splitting while under pressure.
I've talked about enough exploding rockets in recent years that I wanted to start a series of videos about historic rocket failures. This isn't just going to be talking about the impressive RUD's but the nature of the failure and the hardware involve.
Images & Video:
USAF
ULA
Boeing
NASA
KSC
Northrom Grumman / Orbital / ATK
Delta II ICESAT-2 image by Brady Kenniston
www.bradykennistonphotography...
News Article from Aviation Week
aviationweek.com/
Carbon Fibre test video:
• Break Carbon Fiber - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
![อาจารย์ยอด : ลุงแว่วเล่าเรื่องผี [ผี]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Fd2Qsy4dqpM/mqdefault.jpg)
[revert to vehicle assembly building]
LMAO
My brother in law was in the blockhouse that day. Everyone had parked their cars right up close and consequently had them destroyed by falling debris. He used to have a lump of melted glass on his desk that was all that remained of his windshield.
Were they able to get insurance coverage for that loss?
imagine what he wrote for insurance claims!
That was a heck of a souvenir.
At least one insurer refused to pay out, declaring the incident "An act of God". Boeing actually came through and helped out those people whose insurance didn't cover it.@@Whitpusmc
Hit by a rocket? That's an act of God!
It's amazing how far a rocket can get in 12.4 seconds.
They are so large but the scale throws off perceived velocity.
Very good report. You did your research.
I worked for McDonnell Douglas Delta program back in 1997. It was a sad day.
Steely eyed missile men get misty eyed when one of their birds fail.
Funny story; Once at Vandenberg one of the solid boosters was out of storage and sitting outside to get some testing. People were standing around near the nozzle. A plastic protective cap on the nozzle popped off with a good loud pop sound. I think the people standing by the nozzle had to go clean their shorts after that.
I assume the air heated up in the nozzle expanded enough to pop the cover off.
I think the "misty eyes" were from the toxic cloud. 😂
Things going pop unexpectedly does tend to get peoples attention fairly quickly.
Having worked in the hazardous chemical industry i worked with differential thermal analysis equipment. Take 10 grams of the waste stream which is potentially going to be distilled for solvent recovery and put it through a heating cycle to see if its safe to process. Only had one sample which suffered a thermal runaway reaction under heating, it did go pop, well it was more of a bang. Better to test it with a few millilitres of sample than 18000 litres in the still.
I should add no damage or injury was caused by the event, the testing equipment was very sturdy and was probably built to withstand worse samples, the equipment was originally owned by ICI.
@@patkins8319 that's what your mom said
"What doesn't kill you, only makes you stronger".
Composite material: "Well actually..."
well, the saying still works in the long run, just not in the moment
"What doesn't kill you leads others to learn important lessons from your demise"?
So I guess I'm fulllfilling a valuable purpose of making 7+ billion people stronger because I don't want to kill anyone. ...so... your welcome :-)
That has to be the dumbest saying ever. Even dumber than "an apple a day keeps the doctor away".
@@thePronto some people really should eat more fruit and vegetables. I think that is what it is all about. The statement you are complaining about really needs a scope statement like "assuming you can fully recover" or something like that. I agree the stament is about as stupid as the Disney Peter Pan song "You can fly" encouraging children to jump out of windows being supported merely by pleasant thoughts. :-)
I worked on the upgrade of Delta RS-27 engine to Delta II back in '87. I discovered a flaw in the engine analysis, in that they had failed to perform a fracture analysis on the turbopump main shaft. They had done a long duration durability analysis but that was insufficient for the cryogenic conditions to which the shaft was subject. They knew they had a flaw in the engine as they were losing one flight in 23 and half of those were due to engines going "boom", but they had not been able to find the cause. After I pointed out the flaw, they changed the design and the reliability doubled.
baddoggie101 wow super impressive! I’d love to be an aerospace engineer
One in 23. Taxpayers' money. We get a do-over. Nice business.
Memestealer_chungles 05 especially one working on rockets!
nice pfp
@@a7xgh442 As a current ARO major, prepare for many late nights. It's definitely a very interesting, and I'd say rewarding, career choice. There's at least 2 fluids classes, a Vibrations class, Systems Engineering lab, Controls & Avionics, and Thermo and Orbitals (if you're going the Astro route).
My friend Marc was a member of the launch team in the blockhouse during this event. He manned the instrumentation bay and after the explosion they noticed that noxious fumes were leaking in through the cable conduits. They rammed rags, paper and their shirts into the conduits to block the fumes. Marc's car was one of the severely damaged.
Scott, contact me if you do a report on the Delta 3000 #134 failure of Sept. 13, 1977. I was a solid propellant consultant for the McDonnell Douglas failure review team. That failure resulted in a major change in solid propellant formulation.
(written as I look across the living room at a twisted little piece of Delta 241 tank which Moose gave me)
Hey, I would like to hear anything you have to offer on that. Sounds interesting!
I believe Marc said that a chunk of propellant actually struck the entrance to the conduit channel, which had at least been sandbagged (years earlier?) as a precaution. That had me imagining how whoever it was stuck lugging those sandbags in the Florida sun must have been complaining to themself about all that work when it was never going to matter, because what were the chances of a direct impact from something?
Nice firework.
The second stage and payload flying of the disaster is so Kerbal.
But kerbals would probably have tried to ignite the second stage to softland the payload ;)
That first shot of the propellant falling from the sky reminds me of some of the explosions in the original Thunderbirds TV show
Life imitates art
Rockets don`t fail, they sometimes just make alternative live choices. Think about a spectacular end everyone can see instead of burning up over the ocean where nobody notices.
Is Murphy's Law just our perspective on mechanical systems' personal development?
Chad missile fireworks vs. virgin rocket ocean crash.
"It wasn't an explosion, it was... uh... an 'energetic materials science experiment'. Yeah, let's go with that."
That's good shit
You can anthropomorphize but that doesnt pay for repairs
I giggled at "9 strap ons"
that's hardcore
Watch Indian pslv rocket launch. For strap on 😂
Ksp: wait that's illegal
If your SRB has a hairline crack, you will not go to space today.
Ah I see, your a man of culture as well...
You will not go to space very quickly
If your flame-spewer attached to up-goer-two has a crack, you will not go to space today.
But you may go to heaven.
I would hope that if ANYTHING had a hairline crack they wouldn't be going
I saw a documentary on this failure once where one of the engineers described making an insurance claim about is totally destroyed car. Apparently the insurance company was skeptical when he said that "a rocket fell on it." :)
They also described jumping under the desks in the blockhouse as the debris came down. I'm not sure that doing that would've helped.
Clearly, this could've been much worse.
I just read about this a few minutes ago as I'm doing a post on imgur about this failure. Here's the story:
"One of those belonged to Dr. Jay Bernard, who joined Aerospace in 1977, then moved to the Delta II program in the early 1990s to work on the Redundant Inertial Flight Control Assembly (RIFCA), which was part of an avionics upgrade."
"Bernard recounted that his insurance adjuster was initially skeptical when he reported the cause of damage as a collision with a rocket. But he was convinced after Bernard told him to turn on the television, which was covering the event right then."
Because they didn’t buy winrar after 40 days so they have problems with unzipping
Okay wow
How dumb were they, everybody knows 7zip is better
Winrar for unzipping? LOL
But... I thought all the cool kids used arj achives...!
@@arctic_haze *zip* files
Would be super awesome if you could cover the failures of the first rockets/rocket motors. I'm very curious what went wrong in the early days
This !!! Please Manley-san !
@@helioswind2614 *Manley-sama
They probably mounted the guidance sensors upside down or some other stupid thing we used to do when we didn't know better. The best failure has got to go to Wernher Von Braun when he built his rocket with the engine at the top because he thought it would create a "pendulum" (I believe) and that it would stabilize itself. Cool to think that same man designed what would ultimately become the Saturn V which took us to the moon. I guess that's the thing with smart people.
@@mankeez5892 it wasn;t Wernher von Braun it was Robert Gottard
@@mankeez5892 Yeh that was Robert Goddard who did that, not Von Braun.
5:16 Most badass bird under rocket motor
michael cannard can’t see it :/
@Mr. Minticuz It's not directly under the rocket, it's more in front of the concrete block the rocket is placed on. You see that red pipe? The bird is more underneath that walking towards the stairs that need up to the rocket motor. Still the most bad ass bird in the world. Can't even be bothered to fly away...
This should have been called: Big OOps Moments, which is an acronym for BOOM.
Imagine the car insurance claim -- burning rocket fuel and debris landed on my car.
Does insurance cover that kind of damage?
Farmer's insurance commercial. We covered that.
@@TheAgamemnon911 I don't know about car insurance but I remember having renters insurance that specifically excluded damage from "space debris"
Jeffrey Hueseman “we know a thing or two because we’ve seen a thing or two”
rocket hit my car
All rocketry is, essentially, a controlled explosion. We're so accustomed to success we forget that they occasionally go kaboom.
Exactly, reading ignition was quite interesting. While figuring out which liquid propellants worked well (and met the required freezing point specifications) quite a few explosive fuels/oxidisers were invented. And when it wasn't prone to explosions there'd often be plenty of other "minor" issues like acid eating through the storage vessels, being a toxic fluid or better releasing nice toxic vapours for researchers to breathe in.
I think I lost count halfway in the book of how many serious lab explosions/fires the author listed.
Can you make a video on thrust vectoring systems and their differences?
this
:D
My favorite part of this particular rocket failure was mission control:
*rocket explodes*
*Everyone gasps
"Uuhhh. We have had an... anomaly?"
Anomaly literally means “Something that is not normal” and or unexpected
Teh_D3th_St4r That's the required, trained and drilled reaction. If you can't be that cool next to an unexpectedly exploding rocket with your own and your coworkers life probably lost, you aren't calm enough to minimize the damage.
Airline pilots traditionally have similar requirements, being required to calmly perform emergency procedures while calculating which crash option will kill the fewest civilians, for example should they try to land and risk smashing into the airport building with thousands of waiting passengers or aim for that residential building with only hundreds, but no chance of saving themselves and their own passengers?
@@johnfrancisdoe1563 I understand that, but the tone of voice was hilarious... ffs, it's like I'm the only rocket enthusiast with a sense of humor.
I still like the understatement when the Challenger blew up: "... obviously a major malfunction ." (as everyone watching national TV saw what happened)
I'm shocked the engineering team didn't mandate a full-up NDI (using ultrasonics) of the composite structure after loading it up to 95% ultimate. Sometimes you learn things the hard way.
I was in my high school science class watching that launch on TV. After it exploded they locked down the school as a precaution because of the wind direction and the plume. The local weather man showed it on radar slowly drifting over the county. I suspect we were never in any danger, but as a high school kid it was exciting to think we were.
Thor became fat. It got heavier and heavier and became the delta; the tanks have been stretched, a second stage was added. It then blew up.
Love the new series, Scott! Very entertaining, you are awesome, sir.
I showed my Dad this a while ago and we now have a running joke of calling a total disaster a “anomaly” because of how calmly the person narrating describes the explosion. I understand that’s what an anomaly is but we just found it funny... it was also pretty funny when my 5ft model rocket exploded in a spectacular way and the only thing my Dad could say was, “just a bit of an anomaly. Love the video as always!
Awesome idea for a new series. I don't want to see rockets explode, but it is fascinating to watch and learn about. Keep the great videos coming Scott.
Awesome. Great idea for series of videos. Thanks. That slow motion shot of SRB was super cool.
LOVE THE IDEA! I get back from work tired and needing some good/ interesting videos; EVERY time I come back and see a new video by Scott Manley on my feed I watch first and am NEVER disappointed!
My father was in the blockhouse during this launch/failure...he was a propulsion engineer (liquid engine) for Boeing/McDonnell Douglas/Douglas Co. since 1963. As the rockets grew larger and more powerful over the years, he had said that if they lost one on the pad it would obliterate the blockhouse...needless to say, the explosion at roughly 1/4 mile off the pad knocked him out of his chair. They were stuck in the blockhouse for over an hour before being evacuated. His truck was lightly damaged, but the vehicle parked behind his burned to the ground. He was close to retiring at the time, but stayed on until the next successful launch (he didn't want to leave until they had a good launch). He then retired, but contracted back for the (ill fated) Delta III and early Delta IV. He was a very intelligent and well respected engineer, but extremely modest. His passion for the space program was unwavering, and inspired me to join the space program myself (Space Shuttle).
I immediately thought of this when I heard of the Titan submarine having a carbon fiber hull. Carbon composites are very strong and have many advantages in several applications, but everything in engineering is a tradeoff that must be weighed against the drawbacks. I'd imagine they didn't do enough inspection after each dive.
This was a very impressive explosion, great to see a video explaining why. I think it's safe to say, Delta II had a bad problem and did not go to space that day.
I love the announcer on that explosion,
rocket: *boom
lady: "we have had an anomaly"
As we all know cause they had an Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly! :)
I believe you mean a "Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly"... ;)
Obviously they picked the wrong rocket from the shelves - this was the fireworks version.
Die PietSmiet Community übernimmt Ksp
Something I’ve been noticing in your videos is that when you put up any sort of predominantly white screen, it seems to lose brightness within a second (I’ve seen it happen on 3 different platforms and screens).
If this is done on purpose in your editing, I really appreciate it. I tend to watch mostly at night so it’s quite nice to not have my retina fried away by an unexpected bright point in the video.
The most expensive fireworks display in history.
What about the N1?
I may be wrong, but (excluding the Challenger and Columbia disasters) NROL-7 aboard a Titan IV(401)A may be the most expensive rocket failure in history. At over a billion dollars, it's certainly way more costly than the Delta II failure in this video.
I remember the LEGO set of that rocket, its what got me interested in rocketry from the beginning. Sad that it will never fly again :(
Hey Scotty. Thanks for beaming me up again!
Looking forward to more in this series! Thanks for the great content Scott!
6:50 in....”despite this violence” so darn funny. Simply fantastic descriptions.
Keep up the great work Scott!
that was one expensive firework
Fantastic series idea! Looking forward to future episodes!
Great idea Scott.
I love seeing your comments under other yourubers videos, I special like the ones about the toaster and star citizen
Loving this new series Scott! Keep it up, would love to hear the technical side of more failures!
I am massively looking forward to the continuation of this series!
You always have great perspectives and a gift of simplifying for us some complex Tech.
I always remember the documentary about this one launch failure - and the guy in the blockhouse calling his insurance company to explain that his car had been blown up by a rocket..
Great choice of series. As always your video is both interesting and informative. Cheers
3:23 - The Kerbal solution for getting an oversized rocket off the ground: MOAR SRBS!
A great idea for a new series! Looking forward to more episodes of this. Thanks for your content and being such a cool guy.
Another awesome and informative video! Thanks Scott!
This is going to be a wicked good series!
Imagine going to your car insurance after this happened.
Agent: I'm so sorry your car burned. Did everyone get out of your car alright?
Engineer: What do you mean? Nobody was in the car.
Agent: Oh, that's good. So did your house catch fire and spread to your car?
Engineer: Actually burning solid rocket fuel rained down after a rocket explosion and hit my car.
Agent: *confused staring*
This actually happened. Guy filed an insurance claim on his truck (the one Scott shows at the very beginning) on the same day, and the insurance adjuster didn't believe him until the guy told him to watch the news. The first-hand story is floating around on the intertubes somewhere.
That's pretty much how I explained it to my insurance company- told them to check CNN. We had to file two claims - one to our auto insurance and fortunately one to a government insurance handler for lost personal belongings.
Looking forward to more in this series, thanks!
I like this new series Scott.. Keep 'em coming!
Well done sir. Looking forward to more in this series.
Fantastic! Loved the lead up, loved the detail.
I love this series ! « Why rockets fail ». Also love the « KSP doesn't teach »... Ok, I love all this channel !
Please, MOAR videos on failed launches ! ❤️❤️
I like this new format! I´m looking forward to the next episodes.
Yes! A great series this shall be.
Wooo! A series about booms! Looking forward to more!
Great series! 👍
Amazingly, I was just looking at another video of this explosion yesterday and lamenting the fact I couldn't find any actual documentary about it that wasn't overhyped "explosion porn.". Thank you for taking the time to create this video.
I wish I could get better quality video and get the actual USAF report.
"It would be bad if these boosters failed. We better test them so that doesn't happen."
"Good thinking, Jim."
Brian Clark For metal casings, this is the proper standard procedure. Because solid metal is more like a spring that will be just as strong after that pressure test. While fibres is a bunch of strings permanently breaking one by one at max load.
Scott, I love your videos, you do such a great job digging up background details. I'd like to make one minor correction to your story: the folks in the blockhouse do not send destruct functions, that's always done by the range safety boys (at the MFCO console) a few miles down the road.
I remember that day well and so glad the blockhouse kept us alive. It got a little frightening when we could see the smoke layer thickening above our heads. I lost my vehicle too. It wasn't until later in the afternoon that I realized I needed to find a way home. Quite a day. Keep up the fine work.
I like the idea of this new series. Keep up the good work Scott!
I was standing on a beach crossover in Cocoa Beach at the time,was not expecting that show.
It took at least 90 seconds for the noise from the explosion to reach us and even at that distance you could feel the percussion.
David Dowling must have been one hell of a firework show
Hi Scott, Thanks for the new series!
This reminds me of what happened April 18 (1985 I think) at VAFB SLC-4 with a titan 34D (if I’m not mistaken). It was a big RUD. It took a full day or better to put the fires out.
Informative and entertaining, nice work. 👍
Hey just wanted to say love what you do and thanks for the video
Great video. Very cool topic.
Yes more of this please!
Looking forward to more like this!
I got hold of some solid propellant shaved from an old booster and used some to make my own motors for model rockets (and tore off many glued-on balsa fins...) and also used some to make my own fireworks by attaching dabs to the colorants so those burned more completely. Such fun in my later childhood..!
Instructions unclear, where am I flying my safe to?
What an interesting theme. Please give us more on this!
Cool series bro
Nice series 👍
Thank you for the content .i have learned so much from you !! Sir you ROCK
Should be an interesting series. Looking forward to it.👍🚀💥
Loving this a lot!
Very cool! Did they actually identify many flawed SRBs after changing the testing, loading, and inspection methods?
Well told story, much enjoyed!
Hey Scott, I have that same shirt... that park is a assume place... we arrived before the sun came up and it was a nice 70ish 20min after the sun came up it was almost 100... got the love that temp change.
Love you his channel so much it hurts my brain
In 1997, I lived in Satellite Beach about 17 miles from the launch pad. I was just coming out from getting my hair cut. There was a flash and a compression wave hit me, almost knocking me down. I could see the fire at the base. Then, the sound wave hit. It was spectacular!
The zipper failure, had it happen on old tires, or at least ones that were run flat. one sidewall cord fails, then another, then another, and you get that popcorn sound moments before the whole sidewall rips open like a zipper,. BOOM!
You're so reliably good, u may not even know. Thanks!
Great job, very interesting! Thank you, Scott!
I don't recall if that spectacular explosion was on the six o'clock news back in 1997 but I do remember reading about the Thor Delta II explosion in a contemporary issue of Aviation Week and Space Technology where they had a remotely operated camera only a few hundred feet from the LC.
Thanks for sharing :-)
Good idea!
Crazy eye movement during the intro
I really like these tidbits of history. You're a great presenter. Keep it up
Thann you for The great history lesson
greetings. incredible rain of fire !!! good job. success.
You mentioned that the explosion triggered the self destruct mechanism in the first stage, and that brings up an interesting video idea: How do aborts work? Seems like something every rocket has, but no one ever goes into detail on.
I actually like this. Keep this one
One episode per day please 😁
I new APCP was rubbery, but damn! That stuff bounces when it hits the ground!! Now that's CONTENT.