I know of one case where that happened in a western system, and isn't
being used as a face-saving excuse. Honest mistake under trying
circumstances, and the people responsible have been privately rather
than publicly shamed.
Lesson hopefully learned: Do a sponge count, already. If your techs
need to use "rags" on flight hardware, a tray with Exactly N Standard
Rags goes inside the cordon, and when you're done a tray with Exactly N
Standard Rags (unfolded, so you can see nobody tore off a corner to use
in a tight spot) comes out. Counted with an eyewitness.
Same with zip ties, strips of duct tape, etc. Yes, I know you don't
know in advance how much duct tape you're going to use. Guessing high
and throwing out the excess almost every time, is cheaper than an
exploding rocket the one time.
Also, if you can figure out how to make your rags etc
propellant-soluble, that would be nice. We've identified a few
candidates for the usual hypergols, but none that are soluble in both
fuel and oxidizer.
John Schilling
john.schilling@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(661) 718-0955
On 9/10/2016 11:21 AM, Chris Jones wrote:
On 09/10/16 1:41 PM, William Claybaugh wrote:
George:
Occam's razor: the Russians in the past decade have had a lot of
problems that they concluded we due to a rag left in the tank....
It's certainly a possibility, but it's worth noting that "rag left in
the tank" and "engine ingested debris from dirty propellant" have been
the default excuses for launcher failures for a very long time in the
Soviet/Russian programs. Certain senior figures in this program
(Glushko and Chertok come to mind) expressed skepticism at the purported
number of such incidents.
