Russian Proton Rocket Fail

Robert said:
A very expensive accident but fortunately not a manned flight.
Click to expand...


yep... what is that they always used to say about strapping one self to a 25 000 lb hydrogen bomb built by the lowest bidder... ;)
 
The Proton solid rockets use dinitrogen tetroxide as the oxidizer. You can see in the video a strong brown streak which looks to me like it would be nitrogen dioxide (which is what dinitrogen tetroxide tends to become at high temperature). It looks like the a flame is lost on one booster but dinitrogen tetroxide shouldn't need an ignition source so it looks more like something sprang a leak.
 
The Japanese car makers are well known for their manufacturing quality, but part of that is also attributed to their attention to detail in the design phase. Parts are often designed in such a way so that they can only be installed the right way. Things like cam gears have notches or rings that make it impossible to insert it backwards, or bolt on parts have minor variations in the bolt pattern so you just can't line it up when placed backwards. It seems that the Russian rocket builders don't do things like that.

Parts installed “upside down” caused Russian rocket to explode last week

images

Oopsies!
 
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