Falcon 1 Failure-a busted nut!

[trailrider]

Just about lost my lunch when I read this! According to post-flight failure analysis, the failure was due to a fire that started due to fuel (RP-1) leaking from a pressure transducer fitting B-nut that failed during the first few seconds of flight.<br /><br />The nut was ALUMINUM, whereas the lines and adjacent fittings were stainless steel! Apparently, stress corrosion cracking was found in the threads, caused, or at least not helped by galvanic action between the stainless steel and the aluminum (dissimilar metals) in the presents of salt air moisture. It is reported that the aluminum nuts will be replaced with SS, which are actually cheaper, though heavier.<br /><br />For the life of me, I don't understand why someone didn't catch this way back in the process! The weight differential for one...or even a dozen compression fitting nuts cannot be a sufficient penalty to warrant consideration of aluminum for flight hardware! Apparently they don't have any systems engineers with enough hand-on experience to tell them something I learned as a teenager working on my own liquid rocket engine project! (Headshake) And, NO, I don't want to travel to Kwajaline! What is needed is some REAL, acid-on-the-hands rocket engineers!<br /><br />Ad Luna! Ad Ares! Ad Astra!

 

[pathfinder_01]

"What is needed is some REAL, acid-on-the-hands rocket engineers! "<br /><br /><br />Ah which is what they are slowly becoming. There is an old saying, if you haven't broke anything then you haven't learned anything.

 

[alokmohan]

Informative.