Rocket science, in the bag

Discover the cause behind the Falcon 1 rocket failure, linked to aluminum nut corrosion and a resulting fuel leak fire.

Written byPhil Plait
| 1 min read
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My old buddy Dan Durda sent me a note about an article on space.com about the recent failure of the Falcon 1 rocket from Space X. The failure was finally determined to be from an aluminum nut that was holding a pipe fitting in place. Corrosion on the part allowed fuel to leak, starting a fire which doomed the rocket. The article's title? "Falcon 1 Failure Traced to a Busted Nut". As Dan pointed out, launch crews obviously work very hard.

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