News

Land Dragon test Firing failure:

On 3/7/24, the first ever fire-up test of the W36 "Crackle" rocket engine, the one to be used on the Land Dragon 1 launch, was a spectacular failure. As ironically named technician Roy Dragen lit the fuse, the body of the engine immediately imploded within half a second of when the fuel ignited. This caused a fire on the pad, and further attempts have been postponed until MASA can redesign the engine to a new set of specifications. The investigation revealed one of the probable causes of the failure. According to investigators, "W36 was designed to be used with liquid Isopropyl Alcohol (also called Isopropanol) mixed with a gel that is also 75% alcohol, using air from the surface as oxidizer. There is a specific ratio of liquid to gel- about 3 squirts liquid to 1 squirt gel- that was incorrectly met. Our fueling tech used all gel and no liquid, causing an incorrect reaction to the ignition source (Which was Mr. Dragen's lighter). The walls of the engine and tank were not designed to handle all one fuel and none of the other, and if used improperly would result in the walls failing from the unusual heating balance, melting, and implosion." W36IA unit W36U2A was immediately discarded after the spectacular failure. The fueling technician responsible has been terminated from his position. Another contributing factor has been determined to be water that accidentally ended up in the fuel tank after a fire attempt shortly after it began raining. The water vapors most likely caused the incorrect fuel to behave even more badly and temps inside the engine were estimated to be 500 degrees Fahrenheit 0.1sec after ignition, implosion occurred at 0.4sec after ignition, and the pad fire began at 1sec after ignition. The engine nozzle cap was blown off during ignition as planned, and was found a quarter-mile away from the test site. MASA Agents advised citizens within a 2-block radius of the test to wear ear protection until the test was completed. The advisory was lifted at exactly 4:50 past meridian U.D.O.M time.