Top all-time · #14070
An Ex Rocket Man's Take On It
Personal blog · exrocketman.blogspot.comsciencehardware
An Ex Rocket Man's Take On It is a personal blog at exrocketman.blogspot.com about science and hardware. Since 2022, 5 different Hacker News readers have linked it 6 times, most often “The Seal Failure in the SRB That Doomed Challenger (2021)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-11-02, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (4) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this blog for rocket engineering analysis, including propellant ullage, hypersonic missile heating, and the Artemis II seal failure. Commenters point to its posts as full explanations of these topics.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 4 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
The ravings of a trained mind.
Most-linked posts?
- The Seal Failure in the SRB That Doomed Challenger (2021)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-07-10
What Hacker News says?
A theoretical alternative to ullage motors is to impart a spin on the vehicle. Then the fuel would pool at either end, or along the tank walls, depending on the type of spin. There's some diagrams and discussion here: https://exrocketman.blogspot.com/2021/08/propellant-ullage-p...
Comment linking /2021/08/propellant-ullage-problem-and-solutions.html?m=1
on “Chinese villagers capture video of falling Long March rocket booster [video]”Submitted The Seal Failure in the SRB That Doomed Challenger (2021) as a story · 140 points
HN discussionCorrect. No one has "real" hypersonic missiles that travel in the atmosphere for extended periods(*1). The heating problems for shock impingment in non-"simple conicals" has *not* been overcome and won't be. "Hypersonic" missiles are mostly just ICBMs with a very brief passage through the dense lower atmosphere where there's enough lift. And if they try to go higher up to escape the heat flux there's not enough for…
Comment linking /2022/06/about-hypersonic-vehicles.html
on “US hypersonic missile fails in test- 2nd consecutive failed attempt”Submitted An Ex Rocket Man's Take on It: What Went Wrong (With Starliner)? as a story · 3 points
HN discussionYou can read the full reasoning here as it is too long to fit in a HN comment: https://exrocketman.blogspot.com/2022/06/about-hypersonic-ve...
Comment linking /2022/06/about-hypersonic-vehicles.html
on “U.S. successfully flight-tests Raytheon hypersonic weapon”There’s a pretty good explanation here: https://exrocketman.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-seal-failure-in...
Comment linking /2021/12/the-seal-failure-in-srb-that-doomed.html
on “Artemis II is not safe to fly”