NASA X-33 space plane composite tank failure
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Knowing manufacturing defect; engineers shaved the factor-of-two safety factor down to 1.05 via fracture mechanics calculations and lost the tank to thermal stresses on liquid nitrogen fill. $1.3 billion project cancelled.
The X-33 space plane I've mentioned a couple of times. They had a factor of two safety, but they had a manufacturing problem they knew about. So they did all these calculations and fracture mechanics and said, "Oh, we think we're okay, we have a 1.05 safety factor." Well, they didn't. Something else went wrong in the thermal stresses when they froze this liquid nitrogen tank, and the thing popped open. They ended up canceling a $1.3 billion project because of this failure. No one got hurt. The neat thing — they built this in the hangar where the F-117 original stealth fighter had been built, out at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works. So I got to go visit the hangar. If you want a two-story carbon fiber composite that cost $50 million, I know where you can probably buy the second one cheap from NASA. They didn't have a whole lot of use for it afterwards.