Author Topic: How a Single Human Hair Nearly Halted a SpaceX Launch  (Read 389 times)

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Offline Elderberry

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How a Single Human Hair Nearly Halted a SpaceX Launch
« on: October 27, 2022, 01:30:17 am »
GIZMODO by George Dvorsky

A strand of hair briefly disrupted the recent SpaceX Crew-5 launch, showcasing the perils posed by even the most innocuous of objects.

Engineers quip that FOD is a four-letter word, but there’s nothing funny about foreign object debris and its potential to trigger disaster.

The incident happened on October 5 at around 10:25 a.m. ET, as a SpaceX pad crew was preparing Crew Dragon Endurance for launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket. With the four Crew-5 astronauts already inside the capsule and the hatch closed, an attentive eye spotted a single human hair in the latch seal. The hair was designated FOD—an engineering term for foreign object debris—requiring the pad crew to take action.

The countdown clock had just ticked past T-90 minutes, so time was of the essence. The pad crew calmly reopened Endurance’s hatch and removed the offending strand. They performed another inspection, thoroughly re-cleaned the seal area, and closed the hatch for the second and final time. A subsequent pressure check confirmed a tight seal.

That the SpaceX pad crew would take the time to remove a single hair in advance of a rocket launch is revealing and totally understandable. In the aerospace industry, FOD is defined as any object that doesn’t belong at a specific location, whether that location is a hatch seal, an engine, a cockpit, or the runway. Debris in the wrong place can damage equipment, facilitate the suboptimal performance of systems, and trigger outright malfunctions.

More: https://gizmodo.com/how-a-single-human-hair-nearly-halted-a-spacex-launch-1849686966

Offline Texas Yellow Rose

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Re: How a Single Human Hair Nearly Halted a SpaceX Launch
« Reply #1 on: October 27, 2022, 03:26:41 am »
In other words, "No Tribbles Allowed!"

Offline DB

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Re: How a Single Human Hair Nearly Halted a SpaceX Launch
« Reply #2 on: October 27, 2022, 03:31:44 am »
It would seem to me that the hatch seal needs a better design, if a single human hair can cause failure.