Space Related Accidents Many times, just when you think a certain thing has been perfected which will end space launches from going sideways, it happens again. It is easy to get lulled into a false sense of accomplishment when we look at the achievements of companies like SpaceX which has a long string of successful launches. This was proven once again, when a launch which was being touted as the first commercial partnership with a private company on a moon launch took place. The company is Astrobotic Technology who had developed a lunar lander and used its Peregrine spacecraft to do it. Almost immediately into the blast off, officials of the company noticed something was wrong. A propellent leak was detected. Photos from the craft showed the insulation was all screwed up. The company admitted there was not enough fuel left to put the lander on the moon. Sometimes, people get overconfident. There is a famous story about a Soviet general who went to see a launch and set up a chair right on the launch pad. His top officers were with him and must have had their blood run cold seeing this, but they didn’t want to seem like cowards, so they also set up chairs next to the general. The countdown proceeded and the scientists all went into a block house for protection. I guess they didn’t care what the general thought. Lucky for them they did, because the rocket blew up killing the general and his entire group. Sometimes spacecraft blow up on the pad, on the way to their target or even on the way back to earth. We never achieved perfection with our space shuttles. They were far more dangerous than the craft the United States and Russia are using to get to the International Space Station and back. Two shuttles blew up killing the crews and it took a lot of guts to go up in one. The two lost shuttles were the Challenger and the Columbia. The Columbia made a successful launch into space when a problem occurred on the way back to earth. It just disintegrated on its way back to earth. The mission was STS-107. A piece of insulating foam had broken off the shuttle leading to the disaster which killed the entire crew. Before that the shuttle Challenger had been on the launch pad and the weather had gotten very cold. Some engineers had begged NASA not to launch because they felt the O rings on the shuttle were affected by the cold and the launch was too dangerous. They were overruled by the head of NASA and when the launch took place the craft started to climb into the sky and exploded, killing the crew. Just recently, after a successful launch, a Russian rover crashed into the moon. This is rather ironic in a way since the Russians were the first to put rovers on the moon. They were in a race with India, and India succeeded. We have a long history of unsuccessful launches and some very surprising successes. I say surprising because the two Voyager probes which were launched successfully in August and September of 1977. Voyager 2 was launched first and Voyager 1 next on a faster route. What is incredible is Voyager 1 is still sending back a carrier signal, but not data. Voyager 2 is for all intents and purposes silent. Voyager 3 was started, but cancelled due to flaws in the system. In the early days of modern rocket launches the United States really struggled to try and keep up with the Soviets and we were not able to pass them until the Apollo Program. As we all know that put us on the moon, but even then there were disasters. Apollo 13 had scared the heck out of all of us when there was an explosion on it when it was heading toward the moon. The astronauts all had to crowd in the lander and stay in there until the craft circled the moon and headed back. I am happy to say we were all relieved to see the astronauts return safely. The entire world was hoping for their successful return. When new craft are being developed, especially when they are based on advanced designs it should be expected there will be problems. Elon Musk knew this when he tested the Starship. He said they learned from each launch and when the rocket blew up in the sky on the last launch he even declared it a success. Some people couldn’t resist calling it a failure. Over the years we have had many failures in the field of launches and probes. We have learned much and the proof of that was the incredible launch of the Webb space telescope. No other country could have accomplished such an achievement. What many people don’t realize is how complex not only the placement of it in space was, but getting the hundreds of parts to unfurl correctly was an incredible act of engineering. The proof of what I said has to do with China’s latest telescope launch and how they are saying it is better than the Hubble telescope. Believe me if it could compare with the Webb telescope they would be raving about this all the time. When we talk about reaching space, this has been defined as being 50 miles above sea level. Sometimes it is said to be 62 miles. In the beginning of the space race there were many rumors about Soviet failures where cosmonauts had died in space, but I never saw any proof of this. It was even said Yuri Gagarin was not the first cosmonaut in space, only the first to make it back to earth. 23 days later we launched Alan Shepard into space. Humans have been going into space since 1961. Sometimes practicing to go into space can also be dangerous. Before we knew better we had astronauts practicing in an Apollo capsule to go to the moon. I say before we knew better because the atmosphere in the capsule was pure oxygen. Oxygen is very easy to set off into flames and that was just what happened. A tiny spark set the entire atmosphere in the capsule into hot flames and before the astronauts could get out, they burned to death. The three were, Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee. Everyone at the time was in a state of shock. There is no doubt about it, not only is space dangerous but even practicing to go into space can be.
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