Pat Flannery writes:

On 3/9/2010 2:52 PM, Jochem Huhmann wrote:
Well, the thing did not explode... it could have been 9 Merlin engines
finely strewn all over the landscape after all.

I'm half expecting that to happen; you have nine engines, each with a
spinning turbopump, and I picture the harmonic vibrations getting in
synch and then...KA-BOOM!

They did full static tests with all engines (over the full duration of a
first stage burn) last year (and caused a major public disturbance with
that since the people living around the test area didn't knew what the
hell was happening with the horizon on fire). I don't expect this to be
anything else than one of the small problems you have to accept when
you're doing what they do.


Jochem

--
"A designer knows he has arrived at perfection not when there is no
longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery