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It's fairly easy to ensure that there isn't a lot of debris from an object at high altitude consisting mostly of composites and rocket fuel.
by excuse-me 15y ago
It's fairly easy to ensure that there isn't a lot of debris from an object at high altitude consisting mostly of composites and rocket fuel.
- dalke 15y agoCase in point: the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster left debris over two states, but with little in the way of damage. South Florida has a lot of Everglades (see the ValuJet 592 crash) and is 1500 km away and only 250 km or so wide. That's a small target. The Ares SRB splashdown is only 240km downrange and separation is at 38km altitude, so by the time anything is over Florida it's going to be at 100+ km altitude and nearly in orbit. In short, the odds of debris being a problem in Florida isn't enough to worry about.
- excuse-me 15y agoThe shuttle is a much larger and heavier vehicle than they are proposing, and it was in atmosphere and essentially 'flying' when it broke up on return.