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0 pointsceejayoz9mo ago0 comments

We did accidentally torch the Apollo 1 crew in their capsule.

My fav Apollo-era fuckup is when they tested the launch abort system. The test went bad, but was 100% successful in demonstrating it worked. Heh. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/DpdKxv9WINY

Getting to Apollo involved a lot of big booms, too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13qeX98tAS8

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leoc9mo ago

Over on the nuclear side there was SL1, which AFAICT is probably the answer to the question "why doesn't the US Army have its own nuclear systems?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOt7xDKxmCM .

ceejayozOP9mo ago

"Nuclear water hammer" is definitely cringe-inducing.

slenk9mo ago

My point is once we launched that was never a failure. Yes, there were deaths, which is horrible.

But we learned and improved fast.

Now that we have decades of rocket knowledge, we shouldn't be wasting billions of taxpayer dollars on giant explosions

ceejayozOP9mo ago

"Explode until you figure it out" served Falcon 9 well.

I'm inclined to see Constellation/SLS/Orion/etc. as at least as wasteful as the explosions, at least so far. Which one wins out will depend on the end results.

I'd also note Apollo 13 was definitely a failure.

slenk9mo ago

While "explode until you figure it out" worked well on the Falcon 9, it was a lot of taxpayer money to develop a rocket system primarily used to launch their own product at this point - not delivering on price-points they claimed

I might be a little bitter that NASA doesn't get that money instead.

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0 pointsceejayoz9mo ago0 comments

We did accidentally torch the Apollo 1 crew in their capsule.

My fav Apollo-era fuckup is when they tested the launch abort system. The test went bad, but was 100% successful in demonstrating it worked. Heh. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/DpdKxv9WINY

Getting to Apollo involved a lot of big booms, too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13qeX98tAS8

0 comments

leoc9mo ago

Over on the nuclear side there was SL1, which AFAICT is probably the answer to the question "why doesn't the US Army have its own nuclear systems?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOt7xDKxmCM .

ceejayozOP9mo ago

"Nuclear water hammer" is definitely cringe-inducing.

slenk9mo ago

My point is once we launched that was never a failure. Yes, there were deaths, which is horrible.

But we learned and improved fast.

Now that we have decades of rocket knowledge, we shouldn't be wasting billions of taxpayer dollars on giant explosions

ceejayozOP9mo ago

"Explode until you figure it out" served Falcon 9 well.

I'm inclined to see Constellation/SLS/Orion/etc. as at least as wasteful as the explosions, at least so far. Which one wins out will depend on the end results.

I'd also note Apollo 13 was definitely a failure.

slenk9mo ago

I might be a little bitter that NASA doesn't get that money instead.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse