No, I've read the Orbital statements (unless a new one came out this
morning, too busy with the holidays), and nothing yet says it was a
turbopump failure.
On Wed, Nov 26, 2014 at 9:31 AM, Rand Simberg
<simberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
It's what Orbital says happened (or at least they said it was a
turbopump failure, I hadn't heard whether it was fuel or oxidizer).
It's why they're not going to use those engines any more.
On 2014-11-26 09:21, Peter Fairbrother wrote:
On 26/11/14 14:42, Bill Claybaugh wrote:
The lox turbopump failed.
Hi Bill,
Is that a it's-been-determined-that's-what-happened, or a
I-think-that's-what-happened?
Brightness in the plume could be because of a LOX pump failure,
with
lesser amounts of LOX (and perhaps more kero) flowing, but I'd have
thought that the size of the plume would not have grown as much as
it
appeared to.
If the LOX pump to preburner duct broke, rather than the pump
itself,
then the extra LOX would have brightened the plume and made it
larger
- the pre-failure existing nozzle exhaust would be fuel-rich, and
adding extra LOX to it would have had the observed effect.
Same would be observed if the preburner/turbine to chamber duct,
carrying LOX-rich preburner exhaust, broke. My 2c is on that one,
but
someone may know better.
-- Peter Fairbrother
