Who coined the phrase Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly? Usually simply abbreviated as a RUD, and also sometimes expanded as Rapid Unplanned Disassembly, and being a way of understating that a rocket exploded I saw it attributed recently to Elon Musk,
How does a modern day satellite fall apart in space? How does a modern day satellite fall apart in space? This generic question is answerable They blow up, aka rapid unplanned disassembly (RUD) but due to a large number of causes Or parts fail slowly and the vehicle eventually loses structural integrity There are lots and lots of things that can go wrong on objects in space
Why was the SpaceX abort test not initiated by real booster failure? Often the RUD comes later (see the Soyuz inflight abort - issue, followed by escape, followed by issue escalating into RUD) This would cover anything from a pump failing, engine gimbaling failing, unplanned engine shutdown, inability to stage etc etc etc
What is the advantage of doing a static test fire before launch? But with the payload in place, RUD during the test fire is hardly a better outcome than RUD during launch I would also expect there to be at least some "bad luck" failure modes that occur only rarely, and are difficult to detect before they do occur (meaning that a test fire before launch effectively just doubles the risk of those failure modes)
Can Falcon 9s fuel be ignited by static discharge? The Falcon 9 uses RP-1, which is refined kerosene Kerosene is routinely ignited via sparks in e g gas turbine engines, but that's with finely misted kerosene in hot air The 25 kV of an ignition system is readily attainable by static discharges Gasoline fires due to static discharge happen occasionally at petrol stations Diesel and kerosene are a bit harder to light, but the MSDS for
What is SpaceX doing differently with Starship to avoid it exploding . . . Perhaps one other thing to note is that the N-1 wasn't even assembled until it reached Baikonur - it had to be shipped overland from the manufacturers, rather than by barge as everyone else does So any kind of integration testing was impossible, especially since the engines could only be fired once