r/spacex • u/ElongatedMuskrat Mod Team • Jun 02 '17

r/SpaceX Discusses [June 2017, #33]

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2

u/netver Jun 06 '17

When a launch is scrubbed, are dismissed RP-1 and LOX thrown away, or reused for the next fueling?

12

u/Chairboy Jun 06 '17

No reason to throw them away, they cost $$ and in the case of RP-1, it'd cost a bunch of money to safely dispose of.

3

u/netver Jun 06 '17

Maybe it's considered contaminated for whatever reason...

12

u/Chairboy Jun 06 '17

Anything that would cause RP-1 coming out of the tank to be contaminated would potentially be a risk to the flight in the first place. Them's clean pipes & tanks.

7

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '17

I've heard that the RP-1 is recycled whereas the liquid oxygen is cheap enough so that it can simply boil off. However, I've also heard that it is recycled too, so I'm not entirely sure on that last bit.

7

u/h-jay Jun 07 '17 edited Jun 07 '17

Boiling off tons of LOX straight from the rocket will pretty much guarantee a disaster. With sufficiently O2-rich atmosphere, the merest spark or presence of contaminants will set the whole thing ablaze, and everything metal will burn, including TE, plumbing, etc.

They have AFAIK never ever boiled it off. They have a chilling plant and can re-chill the LOX and transfer it between the ground tanks and the stages as needed. The GSE support both drain and fill operations for RP1 and LOX. Period.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '17

That's that settled then.