Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!wuarchive!udel!haven!grebyn!pat
From: pat@grebyn.com (Pat Bahn)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Single SRB Ignition
Keywords: if the worst should happen
Message-ID: <19521@grebyn.com>
Date: 6 Apr 90 15:16:51 GMT
References: <9535@ingr.com> <1161@urbana.mcd.mot.com>
Reply-To: pat@grebyn.UUCP (Pat Bahn)
Organization: Grebyn Timesharing, Vienna, VA, USA
Lines: 25


IF anyone wants to check, Spectrum magazine did an article on the
shuttle in mid 87.  In there they stated that if the shuttle were
to explode on the pad, under the right weather conditions, it would
be equivalent to a 1.2 megaton warhead going off.

This would require a thermal inversion to reflect shock back to
the ground.

This is not necessary the same as 1.2 million tonnes of TNT going off,
but would create the same blast effect in the near vicinity.

Hence, the evacuation of staff and the Large, Thick blockhouses for
command personell.  This is why all vieing areas are a few miles
off.  

Said shockwave would thoroughly destroy the launch facility and damage
nearby towers.

read teh article for more detail.
-- 
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Pat @ grebyn.com  | If the human mind was simple enough to understand,
301-948-8142      | We'd be too simple to understand it.   
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