A report from the US Congress expresses concerns about the low strength of Falcon 9 engines.

Launch of Falcon 9 from the launch site at Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA. If the company does not have time to solve the problems on time, the launch schedule can be changed.

The preliminary version of the US Congress report on the analysis of the NASA cooperation program with SpaceX and Boeing contains information on the technical problems of the missiles of these agency partners. As for SpaceX, representatives of the commission are concerned about the weakness of the engines of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle.

This, above all, is about a number of problems with turbine blades that supply fuel to the rocket engines. This defect, according to experts, threatens the successful completion of the launch of astronauts planned in the near future with the help of Falcon 9. The final report will be published in the next few weeks.

As for the turbines, there is a high risk of cracks in the blades of these systems. Therefore, the company will probably need not just to make changes, but to completely replace the design of the turbines. Of course, this will take a lot of time.
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SpaceX confirmed the existence of this problem. The company is now trying to change the design of turbines so that they do not succumb to the formation of cracks. So far, experts are changing the design of a number of elements. The final changes will be made to the final version of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle, which will carry out manned flights.

The commission of the US Congress would conduct a study of the reliability of launch vehicles developed by SpaceX and Boeing even without the accident that happened last year. Then, during a launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida, the Falcon 9 rocket exploded with the Israeli communications satellite Amos-6. As a result of this incident, no one was hurt, but the satellite was destroyed, and the company to which it belonged demanded either a compensation of $ 50 million or a free launch in the near future.

As previously reported, the cause of the previous accident was a crack in the helium supply system to the tank with liquid oxygen, which, being supercooled, passed into the solid phase. This was the beginning of a series of interrelated reactions, which led to the catastrophe. In November, Musk stated the following: “I think we found out the cause of the incident. The most interesting thing is that nothing like this has ever happened in rocket science. ” He was referring to the confluence of circumstances that led to the appearance of the problem.

This problem, according to specialists of the company, has already been solved. But now, as we see, another problem has emerged in the form of suspicion of the vulnerability of the turbine blades of the company's launch vehicle engines.

Boeing also has problems. In particular, experts have expressed doubts about the reliability of the parachute system used during the descent of the capsule with a team of astronauts during their return to Earth. There may be problems in the event of a collision with micrometeorites or space debris - but here a change in the design of the rocket will not help much. You can add some kind of protective equipment, for example, to harden the casing, but this will make the already not too light rocket heavier, which will require significant fuel consumption at the start - and it is always in short supply.

On January 14 of this year, SpaceX succeeded in launching the launch vehicle with the return of the first stage, which was planted on an offshore platform in the Pacific Ocean. Due to the successful launch of the company, most likely, it will be possible to regain the trust of customers, some of whom began to doubt the cooperation with the company Ilona Mask.



The next launch of SpaceX is scheduled to take place in a couple of months. In general, the company plans to use the experience gained in returning the steps of the Falcon-9 booster rocket, when developing Falcon Heavy, the next-generation powerful booster rocket, when developing. Now the company is developing new landing sites for Falcon Heavy steps. Three steps are going to return at once - they will either be all returned to the land, or some will try to land on floating platforms in the Atlantic Ocean.

In general, SpaceX pursues a policy according to which all actions of the company must meet US expectations regarding the reduction in the cost of cargo delivery to space. This will make the study of outer space more accessible. In general, the company's actions can be called successful. SpaceX sends shipments to the ISS starting in 2012. In addition to successful launches, the company Ilona Mask managed to return several stages of Falcon 9 launch vehicles to the Earth intact.

Now SpaceX is cooperating with the United States Federal Aviation Administration in order to solve all the problems that have arisen that may hinder the implementation of future plans for both the company and NASA.