Questions tagged [shockwave]

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How much higher is the wave drag for a spaceplane compared to its induced drag

I'm working on the conceptual design of the path of a suborbital spaceplane and am trying to do basic calculations. I read that wave drag near the sonic barrier can be huge and can impede the flight. ...
Rajath Pai's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
110 views

Explosion at the launch pad and safe distance from it

As the rocket explodes at the launch pad, heat wave, sound wave and debris spread around the launch pad. So in case How the safe zone is determined in the case of explosion of the rocket at launch ...
Amar's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
79 views

solar systems "Bow Wave" [closed]

could communication with the voyagers eventually be lost due to the solar systems "Bow Wave" Seems this Bow Wave looks like the one that astronaut's capsule's create upon reentry into earths ...
amikayjohn's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
467 views

Why does the shock wave in this new 2017 RS-25 test also have a "bump" on one side? [duplicate]

In last year's question Why does the luminous blue shockwave from the RS-25 engine appear to be rectangular? I showed images of an RS-25 engine test from 2015, and what I believe to be a test of the ...
uhoh's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
135 views

Max Q vs Prandtl-Meyer Fan

Does Max Q occur before or after the Prandtl–Meyer expansion fan? The shape, nature's way of avoiding a single shock wave (per Wikipedia) is visible on the Apollo launches for example. Apollo 11, ...
user3033's user avatar
0 votes
3 answers
4k views

The speed of Apollo 11 at first stage separation was apparently only about 40% of what NASA claims? What does this indicate?

The second stage of Apollo 11 generated a greater than 20 deg shock-wave half angle which corresponds to less than $1000 \frac{m}{s}$ forward speed not 6000 mph ($2682.24 \frac{m}{s}$)? I measured ...
user avatar
4 votes
4 answers
2k views

Does the luminous blue shockwave from the RS-25 engine appear to be rectangular?

Here is a photo of a test firing of the Space Shuttle main RS-25 engine from 1981 from here: The top of the blue luminous area (a static shock wave?) looks like it has a corner. Here is a screen ...
uhoh's user avatar
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