Questions tagged [range-safety]
Questions regarding the procedures in place to protect the area around a launch from damage in case of launch failure.
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Was it another Fishing Tournament?
@KimHolder's thorough answer to What are the consequences for a person who violates a launch exclusion zone? mentioned a fishing tournament. @PearsonArtPhoto's comment about scheduling launches during ...
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Do all launches include self-destruct mechanisms?
Do all launches involve self-destruct mechanisms? How do they usually work? Is it just the boosters that are required to self-destruct? In the case of the space shuttle, how about the external tank?
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Why don't unmanned launch vehicles include launch escape system for payload?
Mention of Launch Escape System (LES) brings to mind images of the crew on board a spacecraft ejecting at launch; the crew being the most valuable cargo on board.
Launch vehicles may also be unmanned,...
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Most recent launch of a nuclear reactor, and current barriers to launching the next one?
The question What happened to Kilopower generators? about Kilopower nuclear reactors got me thinking.
Answer(s) to How many nuclear fission reactors have been launched into space? How many are still ...
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Why would autonomous auto-destruct ramp up launch tempo/cadence?
This thorough answer by @Hobbes links to the item Auto-destruct system seen as a key to ramping up launch tempos.
I'd like to understand Why would autonomous auto-destruct ramp up launch tempo?
I have ...
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Space Shuttle range safety system - Why is there a caution light?
Why did the Space Shuttle have an indicator to alert the crew to the arming of the range safety destruct system? Quoting from here:
The first message, called arm, allows the onboard logic to enable ...
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How are self-destructs implemented in rocketry?
Many rocket systems are equipped with self-destructs to prevent an out-of-control vehicle from wandering too far from its intended path and becoming a hazard. Presumably, the objective is to kill the ...
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Which launch was the first to use a dogleg maneuver?
Jake Blocker's excellent answer to How does one dogleg from Florida to a sun-synchronous orbit? explains what a dogleg maneuver is, what it's for, what it looks like, and even what a real dog's leg ...
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What are the consequences for a person who violates a launch exclusion zone?
The SpaceX launch attempt on Sunday 02/28/16 had problems partly because of a delay due to a boat in the launch exclusion zone. Elon Musk tweeted
"Launch aborted on low-thrust alarm. Rising oxygen ...
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Rocket explosion compared to kT of TNT; has one ever knocked something over at a distance?
The energy equivalent of 1 gram of TNT is about 1 kcal or large Calorie. For reference, 1 gram of carbohydrates gives us almost 4 Calories of energy (if we are lucky enough to use it and not store it)....
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What's up with the "What's Up at Wallops" app?
While reading about the recent Wallops launch for the question Does the Mars2020 lander need a new parachute design? and trying to confirm how to spell Wallops, I ran across the "free What’s Up at ...
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What is involved in clearing air space for an orbital launch?
When the Nov 25th, 2013 SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 launch was scrubbed on a Monday, next launch opportunity was reported as Thursday (Thanksgiving) since the Tues/Wed days are the busiest day in the year ...
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Possible places for a launch complex in UK and continental Europe
Reading "Britain selects U.S., French, British teams to study spaceport feasibility" — I can imagine places in Europe for retrograde or polar launches, but are there places where standard LEO/...
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Ground personnel proximity to space shuttle at launch?
In watching some YouTube videos of US Space Shuttle launches, I was wondering how close personnel were to the actual launch pad during a launch that weren't actually on the Shuttle itself? Obviously ...
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Why are lightning towers at launch pads topped with big hollow tubes with spiral windings and not "lightning rod-shaped" lightning rods?
https://xkcd.com/2107/
Why are the lightning towers around launch pads topped with big hollow tubes with spiral windings? Why not conventional lightning rods - big metal rods with pointy things at ...
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How did JPL detonate a liquid oxygen methane mixture with light?
This answer to Pre-mixing cryogenic fuels and using only one fuel tank quotes John D. Clark's Ignition! Chapter 11: The Hopeful Monoprops, and the quote includes the line:
How he avoided ...
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How can a rocket's self-destruct make for a safer situation than being out-of-control?
On the Sci-Fi Stack Exchange there was a question about implementing self-destruct on spaceships and comparing that to scuttling on naval vessels. One person in a comment said, "They do implement a ...
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Why do the Chinese launch most of their rockets so far from the coast?
We know that launching rockets near the coast is safe for human settlement areas in case a failure occurs. But, why does China launch its rockets so far from the coast (near hills)? Many launch sites ...
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Just how "unreasonably gigantic" was the exclusion zone for the scrubbed SpaceX's Transporter-2 Mission first attempt?
Watching Transporter-2 Mission, currently after 15:02 in the video (after an extended hold at T-00:00:11) I heard a voice say:
...
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Visibility requirement for launch; when can it be ignored (or "mitigated"), and why?
The Space.com article NASA Gives 'Go' for InSight Mars Lander Launch, Visible or Not includes the passage:
As of Thursday morning, there was an 80 percent chance of the marine fog layer exceeding the ...
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If the Earth spun clockwise, would Florida have still satisfied the requirements for the US launch center in the 1960's?
In a comment under the question If the Earth spun clockwise, how would that affect Space Exploration? I wrote:
Kennedy Space Center would be a lot closer to JPL; not sure what all happens with the ...
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Why was Space X's Starship blown up?
I understand that thousands of small rocket fragments will cause less damage when they fall than an intact rocket. But at the time Starship was detonated, I believe it was over the ocean, and not ...
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What rocket launch protocols (if any) are in place to prevent premature or late intentional self-destruct?
There's a few related questions about rocket self-destruct mechanisms here already, e.g.:
How are self-destructs implemented in rocketry? (covers how they work)
Do all launches include self-destruct ...
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What is Tesseract's "secret sauce"? (green propellant)
TechCrunch's Tesseract makes spacecraft propulsion smaller, greener, stronger tells us to "ditch the hazmat suits" and https://www.tesseract.space/products-and-services lists the Lyra 22 (i.e. 22 ...
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Does the Proton-M have a launch termination system?
I was under the assumption that, in contrast to the oft-repeated "oh, those Russians", Protons actually do have launch termination systems which can be used to destroy the vehicle, akin to ...
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Range safety - is the goal both autonomy and standardization - and would it include the "black box" in the rocket?
This and this answer have addressed various issues related to the new Autonomous Flight Safety System, and the second answer addresses one potential benefit being a reduction in turn-around time for ...
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Are core stages going to start falling unpredictably from orbit somewhat regularly now?
Spaceflight Now's U.S. military tracking unguided re-entry of large Chinese rocket includes the following:
In the case of the Long March 5B, the core stage delivered its payload — a prototype ...
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Has "Auto-Destruct" shown any impact on launch tempo yet?
The excellent answer to the question Why would autonomous auto-destruct ramp up launch tempo? explains how it significantly reduces the extent of certain activities and responsibilities. In short:
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