Keep up with the news by installing RT’s extension for . Never miss a story with this clean and simple app that delivers the latest headlines to you.

 
search
section

NASA's Morpheus spacecraft explodes on test flight (VIDEO)

Published time: August 10, 2012 00:34
Edited time: August 10, 2012 06:05
Video from NASA.gov
Download video (5.06 MB)
Embed

Tags

Accident, SciTech, Space, USA

The Project Morpheus vehicle has “experienced a hardware component failure” during a free-flight test and exploded after hitting the ground, NASA said in a statement.

­The resulting fire was extinguished by firefighting personnel of the Kennedy Space Center, where the test flight took place on Thursday. NASA engineers are examining the test data in order to reveal the reason behind the failure.

The agency will release information about the cause of the crash as it becomes available, NASA said in a statement on its website.

Morpheus is a NASA-designed vertical test bed vehicle. It is aimed at demonstrating new green propellant propulsion systems, autonomous landing and hazard detection technology. According to NASA, it is large enough to carry 500 kilograms of cargo to the moon, such as a humanoid robot, a small rover, or a small laboratory to convert moon dust into oxygen.

Comments (17)

Anonymous user 03.05.2013 16:20

peterpetrov, I hope you use your insights and work towards solving the problems you have spotted.

0

Undo

peterpetrov 04.09.2012 23:52

Well yet another failure because of poor design, there was NO failure whatsoever - this is a classic example of 'how not to design a spacecraft '. Basically what you see in the video is that the conventional propulsion methods do require stabilizers for a craft to reach stable lift off. This craft exhibits no stabilizers at all, additionally may I add, the engine output is insufficient to stabilize the craft after takeoff, gravity took over because of the poor design - it crashed and burned, most importantly I do not need a degree and supercomputers to analyze the data provided by the video - the answer is at hand.

0

Undo

Kermit Frazier (unregistered) 23.08.2012 16:20

NASA - Giving 'Rocket Science' a Bad Name, once again...
(still, this is why they test the things, isn't it?)

Maybe someone can tell me again, why NASA did not order a full inspection on the Shuttle that burnt up, BEFORE it re-entered?

0

Undo

View all comments (17)
Add comment

By posting your comment, you agree to abide by our Posting rules

Log in to comment in full, or comment anonymously under character-limit restriction.

100 Text

•
• – required fields

Register or

Name

Password

Show password

Register

or Register

Request a new password

Send

or Register

To complete a registration check
your Email:

or Register

A password has been sent to your email address

Edit profile

Name

New password

Retype new password

Current password

Save

Cancel
Where to watch Schedule

Follow us

Recommended

Mars ‘Curiosity’ stuns scientists, stirs speculation (PHOTOS) 28

Future covered: NASA developing space-bound submarines and printable spacecraft 20

Two satellites lost: Proton rocket launch fails to deliver 33

NASA seeing red: $2.5 billion Mars rover to dig for proof of life 63

Phobos fail: What really happened to Russia’s Mars probe? 11

© Autonomous Nonprofit Organization “TV-Novosti”, 2005–2013. All rights reserved.