Talk:McDonnell Douglas DC-X
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Should it be incorporated into this article? As well, It'd be good to get a picture of the DC-X up there. I'd like to have a picture that reflects the vertical landing capability of the Clipper (IMHO, it's the most impressive thing about the craft), but I couldn't find any pics on the net that were clearly public domain that looked good. BTW, I thought I read somewhere that all NASA or US gov pics or something were all copyright free (or unrestricted license or something), but I couldn't find it again. Is it true? What are the specifics?] lommer 20:01, 9 Apr 2004 (UTC)
[Actually, the ship did not explode. NASA at Marshal had previously "tested" the tanks although there was no need for them to do so, and cracked one in their usual thorough manner. When the ship fell over because NASA people hadn't connected the hydraulic line to one of the landing gear, the cracked tank leaked, and the ship burned. There was never an explosion and good fire prevention action might have saved it since the impact damage was miniscule. Jerry Pournelle. [DC/X was conceived in my living room and sold to National Space Council Chairman Dan Quayle by General Graham, Max Hunter, and me.]]
- The above was posted by ip 24.53.57.135 on Oct. 14, '04. I moved it here and changed the article -Lommer 02:26, 15 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Dr. Jerry Pournelle has a web site at http://www.jerrypournelle.com/, and his email address is jerryp@jerrypournelle.com. On his web site, he commented about Wikipedia, and I wrote to him about how cool Wikipedia is, and sent him the URL for the DC-X page. I chose that page because I know he has a particular interest in it, as he had a hand in its creation. He wrote back to me, complaining that what was on the page wasn't quite right, and I replied to him that since it's a Wiki he could just fix it. He wrote back to me saying he had done so. Thus, I am confident that he did in fact write that text. I agree he didn't do a good job of fitting it into the article.
I have edited the article and incorporated some material from his comments and some more from his web site. I also added a couple of links to his site. I have tried to do a good job.
If you have any questions for him, you could send him an email, but it says on his web site right now that he is sick, so if it isn't urgent please give him a few days to get well. You may email me if you like: steve@hastings.org -- steveha 07:50, 18 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- Cool, always good to see new people on wikipedia and someone as knowledgeably as pournelle will be an awesome contributer. -Lommer 15:49, 18 Oct 2004 (UTC)
[edit] hazmat suit
"specifically the requirement for astronauts to wear a Hazmat suit when egressing the vehicle after landing"
- can anyone explain the cause of this requirement? Plugwash 00:51, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
-
- NASA routinely uses toxic chemicals for its manouvering thrusters. If the same had been done for the thrusters of the DC-1, then the astronauts would indeed have had to wear hazmat suits. (Though having not seen the design I do not know if that was the intension. It would probably have been simplier for them to use LOX/LOH that was in the main fuel tanks.) I strongly suspect this is a made up excuse because NASA wanted a space plane that looked pretty, rather than a rocket that worked. ANTIcarrot 13:46, 22 November 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Landing strut failure- sabotage?
It seems unlikely to me that anyone working on the DC-X would forget to reconnect a hydraulic hose or that the disconnected hose would be missed in a preflight inspection. Also, if it was known the fuel tank was cracked during testing, why was it installed in the vehicle for flight tests?
There's a precedent for that! The LOX tank that exploded on Apollo 13 had been dropped sometime in 1965, damaging a pressure relief vent tube, but it was installed in the SM instead of being repaired or scrapped.
So, deliberate sabotage or more of the "What? Me worry?" attitude and a** covering that's been a factor in killing the three Apollo 1 astronauts and fourteen Shuttle astronauts, and nearly killed three on Apollo 13?
[edit] "a hard landing cracked the aeroshell"
According to Jordin Kare (who is, I understand, a NASA engineer) here, an in-flight fire had damaged the prototype prior to this occurring, which is possibly more important. This is probably not a good enough source to add the info here, but warrants investigating. JulesH 09:21, 13 November 2006 (UTC)
