Wellp, that didn’t go as planned
(When you buy ground support equipment from the
corrupt suppliers of Chinese building materials)
Detailed review
See also: earlier last week
(the orange cloud is a form of nitric acid, a hypergolic propellant)
• SUN night Mitsubishi H3, Land Observation Japan
• TUE night Falcon9, Starlink FL
• WED night Firefly Alpha, cubesats CA
It appears the range officer had taken the day off.
I think I now know the Chinese for “Oh, shit!”
As to the unplanned launch, somebody will probably get chastised for that.
They’ll make ‘im hold the match to the fuse for the next launch
Dollar Store rocketry?
That “orange cloud” is Nitrogen Tetroxide, a VERY toxic chemical. When combined with Monomethyl Hydrazine (also extremely toxic) you get hypergolic reactions and therefore thrust.
I had to work with these two nasties on the Minuteman missile sites, we were real careful around that stuff.
Yep, stuff you only wanna see in training photos.
Had to suit-up a few times to monitor
techs hooking up ground tanks for deliveries
of UDMH (unsymmetrical dimethyl hydrazine) and
IRFNA (inhibited red-fuming nitric acid),
i.e. Agena boom juice