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The sheer resilience of the steel rocket was fascinating. The aerodynamic stresses that it encountered during its out-of-control flight must have been gigantic.
by inglor_cz 4y ago
The sheer resilience of the steel rocket was fascinating. The aerodynamic stresses that it encountered during its out-of-control flight must have been gigantic. Anything made of mostly aluminium would likely be torn apart almost immediately.
(In a somewhat similar situation, though not entirely comparable, STS Challenger was indeed torn apart by aerodynamic forces in a matter of seconds. The crew cabin, being reinforced, stayed intact, but the rest of the vehicle absolutely not.)
- elromulous 4y agoIndeed. A gut-wrenching read, the challenger crew survived for longer than was expected: "...indicating that Smith made the switch changes, presumably in a futile attempt to restore electrical power to the cockpit after the crew cabin detached from the rest of the orbiter." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disaster https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_dis...
- no_butterscotch 4y agoInteresting! Potentially up to 2 minutes and 45 seconds! "Pressurization could have enabled consciousness for the entire fall until impact. The crew cabin hit the ocean surface at 207 mph (333 km/h) approximately two minutes and 45 seconds after breakup. The estimated deceleration was 200 g, far exceeding structural limits of the crew compartment or crew survivability levels. The mid-deck floor had not suffered buckling or tearing, as would result from a rapid decompression, but stowed equipment showed damage consistent with decompression, and debris was embedded between the two forward windows that may have caused a loss of pressure. Impact damage to the crew cabin was severe enough that it could not be determined whether the crew cabin had previously been damaged enough to lose pressurization."