Posts: 53135
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 09-13-2024 06:54 PM               

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quote:

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Originally posted by issman1:
All concerned had "go fever" and paid the price.

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"Go fever" would have been if Boeing went directly from flying OFT-1 to CFT. NASA had no requirement for Boeing to fly a second OFT and it was done so at entirely Boeing's expense.

As NASA explained, it is very hard, if not impossible, to test fire thrusters on the ground that are (a) at vacuum, (b) at temperature and (c) pointed in various directions at once. There just aren't test facilities to accommodate for such. That is why test flights are flown; to test the systems that cannot be fully proven on Earth.