Last night's SpaceX Falcon9 launch suffered what appears to be a CATO, Check out this video, around the 25 second mark:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=y6zsZiVa998#!
But, the vehicle continued on and put the Dragon capsule into the correct orbit!
Today, SpaceX issued a statement saying that the engine did not actually explode:
"Approximately one minute and 19 seconds into last night's launch, the Falcon 9 rocket detected an anomaly on one first-stage engine. Initial data suggests that one of the rocket's nine Merlin engines, Engine 1, lost pressure suddenly and an engine shutdown command was issued. We know the engine did not explode, because we continued to receive data from it. Panels designed to relieve pressure within the engine bay were ejected to protect the stage and other engines. Our review of flight data indicates that neither the rocket stage nor any of the other eight engines were negatively affected by this event.
"As designed, the flight computer then recomputed a new ascent profile in real time to ensure Dragon's entry into orbit for subsequent rendezvous and berthing with the ISS. This was achieved, and there was no effect on Dragon or the cargo resupply mission.
"Falcon 9 did exactly what it was designed to do. Like the Saturn V (which experienced engine loss on two flights) and modern airliners, Falcon 9 is designed to handle an engine-out situation and still complete its mission. No other rocket currently flying has this ability.
"It is worth noting that Falcon 9 shuts down two of its engines to limit acceleration to 5 G's even on a fully nominal flight. The rocket could therefore have lost another engine and still completed its mission.
"We will continue to review all flight data in order to understand the cause of the anomaly, and will devote the resources necessary to identify the problem and apply those lessons to future flights. We will provide additional information as it becomes available.
"Dragon is expected to begin its approach to the station on October 10, where it will be grappled and berthed by Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Expedition 33 Commander Sunita Williams of NASA. Over the following weeks, the crew will unload Dragon's payload and reload it with cargo to be returned to Earth. Splashdown is targeted for October 28."
Looked like a scary moment in the flight. Per other Google-ing I've done:
The anomaly happened right at the time of Max-Q, just as the vehicle went supersonic.
Engines 1, 3, 7 and 9 are located at the corners of the square-shaped engine bay and are sheltered from exposure to the supersonic air-flow by fairings on each corner. “Panels designed to relieve pressure within the engine bay” seems to be a reference to these fairings and associated skirting that accounted for the debris seen in the exhaust plume.
The current Falcon 9 will be replaced by the soon to be introduced Falcon 9 v1.1 which has a different engine bay arrangement - one engine in the centre and the other eight arranged in an octagonal shape and the corner fairings will no longer be required.
The engines have Kevlar around them to prevent the turbine blades, which are spinning at 30,000 RPM, from slicing into the other engines if they fail.
I'm sure they'll be looking hard into what happened, but this incident sure seems to demonstrate the robustness of their design.
I have some confusion about the useage of the term CATO. I am under the impression that CATO means something like Catastrophe At Take-Off. If that is correct, and it was over a minute into it's flight, then it would not be at launch. And since there was not a catostrophic event or an explosion that casused the destruction of the craft, it was not really a CATO. I might be completley wrong, and if I am, my apologies for inserting confusion into the discussion. I agree that it is a robust design and appears to be quite capable. I also understood that two engines were shut down while traveling through Max Q and then started back up again. And from a Space Ex news release I saw yesterday, it would appear that the computer system detected this anomally and in real time, made the necessary corrections to compensate for this motor failure. Quite remarkable, I believe.
I used the word CATO here simply to mean that an engine appeared to have exploded. In our hobby, of course, an engine explosion pretty much always results in destruction of the rocket. (as an aside, I've seen some hobby launches where the motor explodes well above the pad, too)
I'd previously read, though, that even if an engine on the Falcon9 does explode, the Kevlar wrapping is designed to prevent shrapnel from damaging other engines.
FYI, CATO is not an acronym for anything. There's a nut over on TRF who just goes ballistic on anyone trying to use it as such. It's just a shortened version of catastrophic failure (which could be at any time during the flight).
Should be interesting if they can get any sensor data back to get the whole story. Unfortunately, it's a expendable booster, so no debris to analyze.
-Ken
I read an interesting article about the lack of total success with the Falcon 9 launch. You can read it here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/10/09/falcon_9_flameout_leaves_sat_low/
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