SpaceX nears completion of Dragon investigation, has a ?good path forward?
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Jul 15
Hans Koenigsmann
explosion."Koenigsmann
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Summary
Specifically, the April 20 anomaly occurred during the activation phase of the SuperDraco thruster system, when it is is pressurized and valves are opened and closed.Approximately 100 milliseconds prior to ignition of Crew Dragon's eight SuperDraco thrusters, a leaking component allowed about one cup of liquid oxidizer—nitrogen tetroxide—or NTO—into the wrong fuel tank plumbing."A slug of this NTO was driven through a helium check valve at high speed during rapid initialization of the launch escape system, resulting in structural failure within the check valve," the company said in a statement. "The hardware is probably the smaller part," he said.After flying a virtually flawless uncrewed Dragon test mission to the International Space Station in February, SpaceX has been working toward a crewed flight of the vehicle (by NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken) later this year.
As said here by Eric Berger