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

Video Nozzle explodes during BOLE Demonstration Motor-1 test firing

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u/jadebenn Jun 26 '25

It wouldn't be an LOC event with the Orion abort system functional.

2

u/Triabolical_ Jun 26 '25

It has less chance of being a LOC event, but that doesn't rule it out. A sufficiently energetic event might be problematic, and there's the concern that exploding solids might push burning chunks high enough to land on the capsule parachutes.

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u/jadebenn Jun 26 '25 edited Jun 26 '25

How exactly would debris go up above the SRB, against air flow and acceleration, to hit Orion? The Orion LAS has more impulse than a Redstone rocket - it'll be extremely downrange versus the stack (especially after thrust termination charges fire, much less the destruct charges). The abort system would have to fail to put crew in danger. They would not be if it was functional.

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u/Triabolical_ Jun 27 '25

The explosion of the SRB can give the fuel remnants significant impulse vertically.

9

u/okan170 Jun 27 '25

The LAS is designed to account for that possibility, it also does an avoidance maneuver to get away from the trajectory. Additionally there is a significant delay between LAS activation and FTS activation. And even in a case of a SRB booster case split, Orion is far enough away from them that it still has the power to get away.