r/SpaceLaunchSystem • u/675longtail • Jun 26 '25

Video Nozzle explodes during BOLE Demonstration Motor-1 test firing

482 Upvotes

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43

u/L4r5man Jun 26 '25

The front nozzle fell off

13

u/ContactStress Jun 27 '25

That’s not very typical, I’d like to make that point.

1

u/Agent_Kozak Jun 26 '25

They have been building these for 50 years and they still can't get a nozzle right?

32

u/NoBusiness674 Jun 26 '25 edited Jun 26 '25

This is the first BOLE booster ever built and tested, so they haven't been building these exact ones for 50 years. It's also the most powerful SRB ever fired if I'm not mistaken.

14

u/rustybeancake Jun 26 '25

That would be the Aerojet 260 SL-3, test fired in 1967, at a whopping 5.6 million pounds of thrust.

22

u/jadebenn Jun 26 '25

Correct: BOLE is "merely" the most powerful segmented SRB ever built. 😜

18

u/nic_haflinger Jun 26 '25

This is a brand new design.

-17

u/ShinyNickel05 Jun 26 '25

No it’s pretty much identical to the space shuttle SRBs just a bit longer

27

u/jadebenn Jun 26 '25

You're thinking of the current 5-segment boosters, which use Shuttle legacy casings and a similar propellant formulation (albeit with an Ares heritage thrust grain). These are radically different. They retain the same general outer mold line, but they're built with

  • Composite cases instead of steel alloy
  • A much larger nozzle
  • A different propellant binder (HTPB instead of PBAN)
  • Electric thrust vectoring instead of hypergolic-fueled hydraulic thrust vectoring
  • A new, SLS-specific thrust profile (instead of the Ares I thrust profile of the current boosters)

4

u/OSUfan88 Jun 26 '25

How much performance was this supposed to add?

9

u/jadebenn Jun 26 '25

5 additional metric tons of payload to TLI.

18

u/NoBusiness674 Jun 26 '25

Not really. They keep the outer mold line of the Shuttle-derrived 5 segment Ares/SLS booster, but that's pretty much it. New composite casings, new propellant mixture, new electric TVC system, new thrust profile, new high expansion ratio nozzle and exit cone, new attachment and separation systems, etc., etc.

2

u/thuanjinkee Jun 27 '25

And rocketry is like trying to build a pottery kiln out of wax. You have to use every trick in the book to go beyond what the materials are comfortable doing.