This is a crap take. They were lured into a setup, with NASCAR hoping to discredit them. Kudos to Ferreri for realizing a trap when she was presented with one.

IMSA GT racer.

As I walked the infield before the race, I was quite pleasantly surprised to see the huge line out of the e.l.f. tent. Womens’ participation in motorsports is somewhat of  a vicious circle - not as many women are involved because there aren’t as many opportunities, and there are not as many opportunities because not…

I’m surprised they were even able to recover him alive, even if he later succumbed to his injuries. It’s a big, dangerous ocean out there.

You would have to have some sort of Stockholm Syndrome to find the CT an acceptable product.

Well, Dune and a Bacon number of 2 is an automatic . . .

Wind assist is being considered.

He’s worth $1.7 billion. While that’s an astronomical (pun somewhat intended) amount of money for you or me, that’s not even a very big NASA mission these days. And what you’re describing is maybe similar to the Nancy Grace Roman space telescope, which is up to almost $4 billion. Telescopes, especially space…

1. It sounds like they used some sort of secondary instrumentation to determine the cyclic loading on the solenoid pressure relief valve, although it wasn’t clear to me in the press conference.

Thank you for such a detailed reply! Fascinating!

Just curious, the pressure relief valves you use, are they passive or active? It sounds like the one in this case was solenoid-activated. While I kinda understand the theory, I’m not entirely clear on how this one works. Sounds like there’s some active feedback mechanism in its design.

Just curious, the pressure relief valves you use, are they passive or active? It sounds like the one in this case was solenoid-activated. While I kinda understand the theory, I’m not entirely clear on how this one works. Sounds like there’s some active feedback mechanism in its design.

One thing to keep in mind- the Centaur upper stage is a pressure supported vessel, or a “balloon tank.” It needs to maintain a certain minimum pressure, or it will collapse under its own weight and the weight of its payload. So, the valve absolutely HAS to stay closed below a certain pressure. It sounds like they…

The valve was going through some sort of flutter mode, where it opens and closes very quickly. ULA has qualified the valve to undergo up to 200,000 cycles. It can probably withstand far more, but that’s the range for which they have testing data. When data had realized that the valve had undergone more than this…

ValveTech did not make this valve. They had contract disputes on StarLiner, so they’re just opining on what they’re reading in the press. It comes off as sour grapes over a contract dispute. More detail over at Gizmodo.

ValveTech did not make this valve. They had contract disputes on StarLiner, so they’re just opining on what they’re reading in the press. It comes off as sour grapes over a contract dispute. More detail over at Gizmodo.

If I’m not mistaken, I don’t even think it was the supplier for this particular valve! They’re another valve company which I don’t think has direct familiarity with this particular valve just chiming in on the same general information that we all have.

Also, the valve maker (who did not make this valve) is simply making general observations, and do not have any application-specific knowledge of this LOX tank pressure relief valve on the Centaur. Whereas, ULA is intimately familiar with this, and is monitoring it carefully, and in fact, went the conservative route…

I assume this might be related to the shim issue. Since they build the sections of the aircraft as complete barrels, which are very rigid, and they need to fit them together so they don’t transfer excessive loads in any one portion of the mating surface, shims are necessary to allow for the minute tolerance gaps. Not…

The launch vehicle, which has had over 100 successful missions in a row, had a valve anomaly, which would not have delayed a satellite launch, but they more stringent criteria for a crewed launch.