Author Topic: FAILURE : Astra R3.3 - LV0010 - TROPICS Flight 1 - CCSFS SLC-46 - 12 June 2022 (Read 32881 times)

edkyle99 · « **Reply #40 on:** 06/12/2022 04:06 pm »

Ascent Timeline.

edkyle99 · « **Reply #41 on:** 06/12/2022 04:09 pm »

edkyle99 · « **Reply #42 on:** 06/12/2022 04:11 pm »

HOLD at about T-1:30.

edkyle99 · « **Reply #43 on:** 06/12/2022 04:19 pm »

Cruise ship coming in to Port, but this isn't the cause of the current HOLD. More time was needed for "LOX Conditioning". Count to restart soon.

edkyle99 · « **Reply #44 on:** 06/12/2022 04:33 pm »

Sounds like the weather may go bad around 16:50 UTC, so crews in a race to beat the weather. The actual launch window extends to 18:00 UTC.

Galactic Penguin SST · « **Reply #45 on:** 06/12/2022 05:32 pm »

Back to GO with T-0 at 17:43 UTC.

[zubenelgenubi: added screen captures]

russianhalo117 · « **Reply #46 on:** 06/12/2022 05:50 pm »

Liftoff occurred with nominal MECO and SES. Standing by for SECO and payload deployment.

[zubenelgenubi: added screen captures]

ugordan · « **Reply #47 on:** 06/12/2022 05:51 pm »

Premature shutdown.

[zubenelgenubi: added screen captures]

russianhalo117 · « **Reply #48 on:** 06/12/2022 05:52 pm »

Early SECO just over a minute before scheduled SECO at a maximum broadcast velocity of 6575m/s. Orbital velocity was not achieved.

DaveS · « **Reply #49 on:** 06/12/2022 05:52 pm »

Quote from: ugordan on 06/12/2022 05:51 pm

Premature shutdown.

With subsequent tumble at T+7:25.

[zubenelgenubi: added screen captures]

ugordan · « **Reply #50 on:** 06/12/2022 05:54 pm »

Around 1000 m/s short of orbital velocity.

DaveS · « **Reply #51 on:** 06/12/2022 05:55 pm »

Tracking map, yellow vertical line is 1st stage MECO point with the green vertical line being the planned SECO and orbital insertion point:

ZachS09 · « **Reply #52 on:** 06/12/2022 05:55 pm »

That's five failures and two successes over the course of Rocket 3's flight history.

FutureSpaceTourist · « **Reply #53 on:** 06/12/2022 06:22 pm »

https://twitter.com/kemp/status/1536050802736803847

Quote

We regret not being able to deliver the first two TROPICS satellites. Nothing is more important to our team than the trust of our customers and the successful delivery of the remaining TROPICS satellites. We will share more when we have fully reviewed data.

Thorny · « **Reply #54 on:** 06/12/2022 06:25 pm »

Quote from: DaveS on 06/12/2022 05:55 pm

Tracking map, yellow vertical line is 1st stage MECO point with the green vertical line being the planned SECO and orbital insertion point:

MECO was back much closer to Florida. I think the yellow line was the planned Stage 2 cutoff and the green line was planned payload deploy.

kdhilliard · « **Reply #55 on:** 06/12/2022 06:43 pm »

Quote from: Thorny on 06/12/2022 06:25 pm

Quote from: DaveS on 06/12/2022 05:55 pm
Tracking map, yellow vertical line is 1st stage MECO point with the green vertical line being the planned SECO and orbital insertion point:
MECO was back much closer to Florida. I think the yellow line was the planned Stage 2 cutoff and the green line was planned payload deploy.

Agreed. Here's the first view we have of that plot after MECO, at T+04:55, 1m40 into upper stage flight.

DaveS's plot capture first appeared at T+09:06, and didn't seem to change over the next three minutes (until 12:08, when they cut away for goodbyes), ~~so I suspect they lost telemetry shortly after SECO~~.
[Telemetry continues to be displayed for a full minute after shutdown, until it is removed from the screen.]

Early shutdown aside, I assume we shouldn't make much of their trajectory being in corridor, but noticeably south of midline?

Also, steering looked a bit sporty to me, both during the few seconds of booster rocket cam video, and again later during S2 flight. Not overly jerky, but not as smooth as I expected, as if the control loop wasn't properly dampened or as if the thrust vectoring couldn't be controlled finely enough. Is this typical of earlier Rocket 3 flights?

Edited to note that the displayed telemetry continued for a full minute after shutdown.

Robert_the_Doll · « **Reply #56 on:** 06/12/2022 06:50 pm »

Very unfortunate indeed. Even if the stage had not tumbled, and the payloads able to separate, there was no way for them to make up that 1000 m/sec deficit.

DaveS · « **Reply #57 on:** 06/12/2022 06:51 pm »

Quote from: Thorny on 06/12/2022 06:25 pm

Quote from: DaveS on 06/12/2022 05:55 pm
Tracking map, yellow vertical line is 1st stage MECO point with the green vertical line being the planned SECO and orbital insertion point:

MECO was back much closer to Florida. I think the yellow line was the planned Stage 2 cutoff and the green line was planned payload deploy.

That doesn't make any sense unless the vehicle was seriously underperforming and flew long as the tracking line was well beyond the yellow line before the early SECO.

Underperfomance would however explain it nicely as the second stage ran out of propellant and the engine shutdown and an underperformance would show up in tracking data as the vehicle would fly long.

Saw the same thing on the first Delta IV Heavy launch where the strap-on CBCs and the Center CBC were shut down and jettisoned early leading to the upper stage to burn longer than expected to compensate for the velocity shortfall at upper stage ignition for the first burn.

zubenelgenubi · « **Reply #58 on:** 06/12/2022 06:52 pm »

Thanks NSF and Astra for today’s webcast!

Thanks to Ed and everyone else who assisted with today’s launch thread coverage!

Jeff Lerner · « **Reply #59 on:** 06/12/2022 06:55 pm »

Also, that last screenshot shows an altitude of 359km…wasn’t the planned altitude 350km ?
Perhaps the first stage guidance was lofting the rocket and the 2nd stage ran out of fuel trying to obtain orbital velocity?