This is the video I first saw.
About 8~10 seconds after impact and fireball, the shockwave hits the cameraman.
Ours didn't get this bent out of shape. We went pretty much straight up, coasted after the engines shut down, and then plopped down into the water.
This sucker went BOOM in a really big way!
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Wow.
ReplyDeleteBoom indeed!
ReplyDeleteLooks bad from the moment they lit that candle. Like the control loops just can't steer. Guess we'll hear an official explanation someday.
ReplyDeleteI've heard various things so far.
ReplyDeleteOne, that an engine lit off 400ms "early", causing flame damage and excessive temperatures in the area surrounding it, possibly damaging the gimbal mechanism.
Two, some kind of control system failure.
Three, a combination of the two.
I don't know how many telemetry channels there are on a Proton, or what parameters are collected, but if it was on a US rocket, we'd already have a pretty good idea of what happened.
Not sure I wanna be that close to one of those puppies!
ReplyDeleteTrust me, you don't!
ReplyDeleteGreat example of WHY you don't get right up against one... And I was wrong in the previous post comment, that sucker NEVER burped, it went off the rails as soon as it cleared the pad! Oh yeah, and speed of sound vs. speed of light (vision)... GREAT example!!!
ReplyDeleteYeah, it was a lost cause a few seconds after it lifted off.
ReplyDeleteOne of the really tell tale things is that it started rolling. Launch vehicles like this generally don't roll very much. Even before it pitched over and went horizontal, it had started to roll.
Very bad sign.....