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.