Size of debris is not that important: lots of small pieces will cause a similar amount of damage as the same mass in a large piece. Two important roles of flig

Size of debris is not that important: lots of small pieces will cause a similar amount of damage as the same mass in a large piece. Two important roles of flight termination are: 1. Cause the rocket to stop thrusting (and thus prevent it from thrusting out of range safety exclusion zone). 2. Cause the propellant tanks to be destroyed. This prevents the propellants from causing a large explosion on the ground (when the tanks hit the ground) in preference to a conflagration in the air.