In the past two days, this rocket, which is said to be a benchmark for SpaceX, may be more popular on domestic social media than the genuine SpaceX.
The thing is like this. Yesterday afternoon, a blurry video went viral in various groups and Weibo. A rocket fell down and exploded just after it took off. It was located in Henan, and locals could see it from upstairs.
Many official media posted the video immediately, and the matter even made several hot searches.
Fortunately, the local government responded quickly and reported that no one was injured, but the accident was still quite disturbing. Many netizens were frightened. Many netizens began to question the rocket company. Why is the test base so close to the city?
There are also many people who are gloating over the misfortune and laughing at the company for not learning enough from Musk. If it doesn’t work, just copy it?
Even in the comment area of foreign media, some people even elevated this matter to China's commercial aerospace industry as a whole, mocking all products made in China.
Yao Shichao feels that although some netizens are extreme in what they say and even wear colored glasses, it cannot be denied that this matter is indeed abstract.
Because the bulletin said it was the Suzhou rocket test flight accident, but in fact, it should not have flown. This was originally a test tethered to the ground. As a result, the rocket was too powerful and the test bed (the device that fixes the rocket) was not tethered and flew out, so it became an "accidental takeoff". . .
The most direct reason behind this is that we consulted an industry insider in the commercial aerospace field. He believed that Tianbing Technology made a very low-level principle error. It is likely that there was a big problem in the operation of the test bench.
We also checked and found that the patent applied by Tianbing Technology last year (they also had a typo here), "A Support Structure for Launch Vehicle Power System Testing", said that after their test structure adopts new technology solutions, the limit The carrying capacity can reach 600t, which is far beyond the carrying capacity of similar products. After all, the largest test bed in Tongchuan in Asia is only 700 tons, and the test bed for the new generation Long March 12 rocket is only 500 tons.
But the problem is that the ultimate bearing capacity is 600 tons, but according to official data, this time nine engines with a thrust of more than 80 tons were fired together, and the actual thrust reached 820 tons, which has far exceeded the 600-ton limit.
According to an old man in the industry, even if the weight of the rocket can offset hundreds of tons of thrust, this operation is still too cautious..
Putting aside the issue of load capacity, I feel that their operation may have been a little too negligent in fixing the rocket. Theoretically, in addition to using bolts to fix , this experiment also needs to add weight on the top and use steel cables to fasten . But in fact, this time only the bottom bolts were used, and the top counterweight and steel cables were both used. No.
There are also rumors on the Internet that in order to complete the test run before July, they took a chance and did not have time to prepare the steel cable, so they left it alone.
In the actual test, since the rocket is inherently powerful, the fuel is not necessarily evenly filled after ignition, so the real-time thrust may be greater. If we also take into account the huge impact of the resonance of the nine engines on the structure, it will be difficult for the test bench to be stuck at the limit without overturning.
Many bloggers said that this is the first time such an abstract thing has happened in the history of aerospace. In fact, after we went to check, we found that this was not the first time. On June 6, 1952, Viking 8 failed to hold the aircraft during static test and crashed at 6~8km after 55 seconds of flight.
However, this was already a matter of the prehistoric period of aerospace. At that time, the first artificial satellite had not been launched yet.
The low-level mistakes made decades ago have been reproduced again. It is really a bit embarrassing, but we feel that the rocket manufacturer Tianbing Technology may also be blamed for this. has taken too big a step, which is ridiculous..
It’s not that we are deliberately black. The main thing is that Tianbing Technology was only established in 2019, which is very late among the private aerospace factories. However, this does not delay the big blueprint of others, which must be benchmarked against space x. Recyclable rockets.
In an interview a few days ago, the boss Kang Yonglai also said that next year we can shoot up to 10 rounds. This is not a small amount, but Lao Kang has the confidence.
On the one hand, he himself also came from a major in , and more importantly, because Tianbing Technology has gone so smoothly.
Tianbing’s first product, Tianlong No. 2, was a great success when it debuted in April last year. Coupled with the success of several recycling experiments at the end of the year, they have completed 12 rounds of financing in 4 years, with a total value of more than 4 billion, and a company valuation of more than 15 billion.
The confident Tianbing has repeatedly stated in its external publicity that it will launch a new model in June 24, which is the Tianlong 3 that will compete with the Falcon 9.
But the schedule is still too tight. Tianlong 2 and Tianlong 3 are not of the same magnitude at all. One is 150 tons and the other is 600 tons. Moreover, the engines of Tianlong 2 are all the same model from the Long March series, but this time Tianlong No. 3 is all self-developed, and the difficulty level of is not the least bit higher than that of .
So hurry up and hurry up. Tianbing finally completed the static test run on the last day of June. Once successful, it will not be far from the official launch.
But this time when I started the engine, I discovered that its test bench was relatively loose and had no grip, so it was loose. (But just say it didn’t fly)
Fortunately among the misfortunes, the abstract rocket of the Tianbing automatically shut down 15 seconds after it took off. It did not fly too far and hit the mountainous area.
However, this test site seems to be in a mountainous mine in the countryside of Gongyi, but it is actually only a few kilometers away from the city of Gongyi. If the engine had been shut down for a few seconds longer, it would have hit innocent citizens nearby who were holding up their mobile phones to take pictures, and no one would be in the mood to have fun.
Of course, the bad reviewer still has to intervene here. Although many netizens complain that the test site is too close to residential areas, this cannot be entirely blamed on others. . .
After all, the rocket test site requires convenient transportation and sparsely populated . However, except for places built by countries like Jiuquan, the only places that meet the requirements are ports or mines.
It is normal for there to be towns near the mines. For example, the Blue Arrow engine test was conducted at the Meishan Mine in Huzhou, and the static ignition test was conducted at the Jiuquan launch site.
Finally, the negative commentator feels that although this incident is quite big, we still have to give more tolerance and support to private aerospace. After all, as the saying goes, "Success is a little bit of failure, failure is a little bit of failure." Little by little success”.
Part of the reason why we recognize companies like space x is because they dare to use bold and risky plans to quickly iterate products, and accidents during these attempts are inevitable. After all, starships also progress through explosions. I hope everyone can be more tolerant of our company.
And there is a saying that this rocket can fly straight without good aerodynamic shape and without any guidance system, and the attitude is not bad, which shows that the engine and rocket structure are quite good. The consistency of the operation of the nine engines has also been maintained for a period of time, indicating that the technology is still at a high level.
It’s a pity. If nothing happens, this is definitely a good rocket. I hope Tianbing’s engineers can conduct a review as soon as possible and launch it successfully.
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