Air Force safety experts now say the Ares-1 launch abort system probably won't save a crew from an exploding rocket. Shrapnel from the inferno below would likely rain over the Orion capsule before it had a chance to get away.
Of course, Viceroy Hanley says NASA's supercomputers tell a different story and says it ain't so.
And who would argue with that?
2 comments:
Air Force also declined the flight certification for Ares-I-X to fly in the Eastern Test Range due to Thrust Oscillation. Their analysis showed that vibration could cause the guidance system to reset in-flight and could also disable the Range Safety system in some situations. Delays to Ares-I-X are due to resulting re-design so that those systems can be isolated from the vibration environment.
Safe, Simple, Soon. Who you tryin' to kid?
Nothing to worry abut here. Mr. Hanley answers the Air Force concerns by stating that the first stage is very reliable. I guess he means it doesn't really matter if the LAS works or not; what can possibly happen to the first stage?
Next thing we'll hear is that the trumped-up safety numbers are so good, we can just get rid of that pesky ol' LAS altogether. What a slick way of regaining the Stick performance margins...
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