ULA’s Vulcan Centaur Makes Successful Liftoff Despite “nozzle anomaly”

5 Comments on ULA’s Vulcan Centaur Makes Successful Liftoff Despite “nozzle anomaly”

1. Morning wood gives me a nozzle anomaly.

2. In comments later in the day on social media, Bruno said the incident was “not very” close to a failure of the SRB itself. He described it as a “nozzle anomaly” that did not involve the booster casing or fuel grain and was compensated for by the booster. “Yes, it looks dramatic, like all things on a rocket,” he wrote. “But, it’s Just the release of the nozzle. No explosions occurred.”

   OK, it didn’t involve casing, it didn’t involve fuel grain, and nothing exploded. But pieces came off the nozzle, and the nozzle’s configuration and shape are major determinants of exhaust gas velocity and thus thrust. Can somebody explain just how a solid state rocket has any capabilities that can “compensate” for changes in thrust? I can’t help but notice that this guy Bruno skated right past any discussion of what WAS affected and then need compensating for.

3. ^^^ Yeah. This guy has a future as a White House Communications Secretary under a Democrat administration.

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4. Uncle Al: Could have been off vector thrust. Some solid rockets have steerable nozzles. The big ones almost always do.

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5. @Lowell — Thank you, that explains a lot. I suppose it is quite possible that some part of the nozzle steering gear failed and that was the debris visibly falling off. If so, then the other solid booster could have been the “compensator” for the failure.

   If it wasn’t obvious, I was concerned about the absence of any word about thrust being affected, and how that would affect the certification of the vehicle for “national security” payloads.