Xref: utzoo sci.space.shuttle:2083 sci.space:8571
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!concertina!fiddler
From: fiddler%concertina@Sun.COM (Steve Hix)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle,sci.space
Subject: Re: USSR and the Moon [was "Beyond the Energia crisis"]
Keywords: Soviet/American shuttle comparison
Message-ID: <79302@sun.uucp>
Date: 29 Nov 88 22:27:40 GMT
References: <880@cernvax.UUCP> <18263@ames.arc.nasa.gov> <18420@ames.arc.nasa.gov> <7827@ihlpl.ATT.COM>
Sender: news@sun.uucp
Lines: 14

In article <7827@ihlpl.ATT.COM>, knudsen@ihlpl.ATT.COM (Knudsen) writes:
> 
> However, in that article I questioned whether you can really get a
> big explosion out of a failed rocket.  A big messy fireball, yes,
> that would probably melt and destroy the gantry along with the
> crew.  But "everything within a mile?"  And the people in the

Have you ever heard about a fuel/air bomb?  Small charge speads out
an aerosol of some liquid fuel, then an igniter sets off the cloud.
Extremely potent for a given weight of bomb.

If the rocket first suffered a small explosion that ruptured its tanks,
then the resulting fuel/oxidizer cloud gets ignited...it might have
the described effect.