Re: Falcon preliminary data back, better than it looked

In message <1174854050.475297.56420@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
"Alex Terrell" <alexterrell@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Interesting what you can't test:
"The unexpectedly high rotation rate was due to not knowing the
shutdown transient of the 1st stage engine (Merlin) under flight
conditions. The actual shutdown transient had a very high pitch over
force, causing five times the max expected rotation rate.' "

Is he talking about pitch / yaw rotation or roll rotation? If roll
rotation, then 2.5 degrees per second doesn't seem much - over 2
minutes for one rotation.

But with the length of the first stage that's plenty to cause the
collision seen. With the expected pitch rate there would have been
plenty of time for the interstage to clear the second stage engine.

Anthony

.