/sci/ - Science & Math

https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/05/spacex-is-going-for-its-200th-consecutive-falcon-9-success-tonight/

> Nearly seven years ago, on a steamy morning in Florida, a small team of SpaceX engineers was fueling a Falcon 9 rocket for a pre-launch firing test of its nine Merlin engines.

> The Amos-6 accident—known internally at SpaceX as "Flight 29"—was a wrenching failure for a launch company. With the destruction of the Space Launch Complex-40 pad, SpaceX had no other pads in service at the time, and it had no rockets to launch. It was a low moment and emboldened doubters at NASA and in the human spaceflight community as SpaceX worked toward human launches on board its Falcon 9 rocket. They would say things like, You want to put humans on that?

>But it was also the last serious accident involving the Falcon 9 rocket.

>Since the loss of that rocket, SpaceX has strung together a remarkable 199 successful launches of the Falcon 9 rocket. Late tonight, at 11:02 pm local time in California (06:02 UTC Wednesday), SpaceX has a chance to reach 200 successful launches with a Starlink mission lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base. Given the late hour, and weather permitting, this launch should provide some great viewing opportunities along the California coast tonight.

> Taking this failure into account, the Soyuz-U had a run of 100 successful launches from 1983 to 1986. This happens to be the exact same number of consecutive successes by the Delta II rocket, originally designed and built by McDonnell Douglas and later flown by Boeing and United Launch Alliance. Overall the Delta II rocket launched 155 times, with two failures. Its final flight, in 2018, was the rocket's 100th consecutive successful mission.