• Question: How many times has the launch of a rocket or rover gone wrong?

    Asked by Yasmin to Agata, Chris, John, Kirstin, Michael on 22 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Chris Hackett

      Chris Hackett answered on 22 Jun 2016:

      Many times in the past, thankfully not many human laden flights have gone wrong. During the early stages of flight, a lot of Russian rockets did not launch correctly but in recent times, this is becoming more and more unlikely. There was also a mission to mars called beagle but the lander did not open properly and not get enough sun to power itself back on.

    • Photo: John Allport

      John Allport answered on 22 Jun 2016:

      Don’t know, but I clearly remember the Challenger disaster when the space shuttle blew up live on TV in 1986. Several years later, I ended up helping some of the engineers investigating the cause by providing data on some materials that I was working on which behaved in a similar way to some on the Challenger.

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