Joe Barnard joins Jake and Anthony to present The Off-Nominees: the most bizarre space news stories of the year. They discuss launch failures, Starship incidents, coolant leaks on the ISS, a funny incident involving a rocket and Elon's list, Avio's win, Joey's projects, propellant development, and upcoming travel plans.
Starship IFT-1 provided a series of entertaining failures, including a concrete shower on the beach, Raptor engine failures, a failed flight termination system, and a spectacularly accidental flip maneuver.
Vega: Mistakenly Trashed Tanks
An off nominee-worthy mistake occurred when tanks critical to a Vega rocket launch were mistakenly thrown out by a janitor, raising questions about future launches.
Axiom: Spacesuit Reveal
Axiom's spacesuit reveal left everyone confused and puzzled as to why the black suit was unveiled when it wasn't the actual suit, leading to more questions than answers.
Russian Spacewalk: Coolant Mop-Up
A Russian spacewalk involving mopping up coolant from a leaky module with a rag showed a strange and comical approach to handling the situation.
Centaur Explosion
The Centaur facility explosion, caught on camera, had a cartoonish quality and sparked controversy when ULA allegedly asked Blue Origin to delete the photo and video footage.
Other Mentions: Lost Tomato, Failing Geostationary Satellites, Failed H3 Launch Vehicle
Other noteworthy incidents included a lost tomato that sparked a foil request, ongoing issues with failing geostationary satellites, and a failed launch of the new H3 rocket by JAXA and Mitsubishi.
The failure of valves in a rocket design
In this podcast, the speaker discusses the significance of valves in a rocket's design. They explain that valves should be designed to fail closed so that when the hydraulic power is lost, they shut off. They mention an incident where the valves failed open, causing the engines to continue running for 40 seconds even after losing power. This failure mode is considered dangerous and a partial failure of the rocket's system.
The double explosion of Starship and Elon Musk's tweet
The podcast episode highlights two major events related to Starship. First, they discuss the double explosion of Starship, which occurred independently in flight. The first explosion was described as one of the biggest explosions in flight, and the second explosion was also notable. They note that these explosions were not physically or temporally linked, making them distinct events. Additionally, the podcast mentions a tweet by Elon Musk where he asks the FAA about the 63 items identified as failure points in a rocket mishap investigation. This tweet is described as funny and a microcosm of the drama and attention surrounding Starship and Twitter in the year 2023.
Jake and Anthony are joined by Joe Barnard to present The Off-Nominees: the most bizarre space news stories of the year. We’ll debate what went the most comedically wrong this year, crown a winner, and also score some 2023 predictions.
