Why houses near the spaceport are so cheap

[Nyrath]

http://gizmodo.com/5044130/the-deadly-aftermath-of-a-rocket-explosion-seconds-after-launch

[lemming]

Re: Why houses near the spaceport are so cheap

 

Well, it's one spot, you'd like a longer commute to.

[Cancer]

Re: Why houses near the spaceport are so cheap

 

Interesting, but I recall decades ago watching a "blooper reel" of failed Thor, Redstone, Atlas, and other big-booster launches back in NASA's early misery days of the mid-late 1950's and perhaps early 1960s. Those were delivered in rapid-fire fashion, so you saw no more than about ten seconds of each failure. That was on TV, and it's been way too long for me to remember who it was that put it together.

 

Of course, at times, there's really no substitute for an underground parking garage, too.

[shadowcat1313]

Re: Why houses near the spaceport are so cheap

 

IIRC the soviets had an accident during their moon program that turned about a mile area around a launch pad at Baiknour into a smoking crater

 

http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/spacecraft/q0196.shtml

[shadowcat1313]

Re: Why houses near the spaceport are so cheap

 

IIRC the soviets had an accident during their moon program that turned about a mile area around a launch pad at Baiknour into a smoking crater

 

http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/spacecraft/q0196.shtml

 

heres the real disaster I was thinking of

http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/spacecraft/q0179.shtml

[Lawnmower Boy]

Re: Why houses near the spaceport are so cheap

 

Isn't there a rocket engine concept where the fireballs of death would consist of incandescent hexaflouridic acid (or, I guess, hexaflouridic ions...)?

"I say, first we blow them up, then we disintegrate them!"

[Cancer]

Re: Why houses near the spaceport are so cheap

 

I knew about the N1 failures (I recall reading something that referred to those in high school, which means not later than spring 1974), but not the Nedelin disaster.

 

The discussion further down the OP page is interesting too. That video is from 1997 at Cape Canaveral. The big subsequent bangs in the video are bits of solid rocket booster. If I'm reading correctly, the 2nd stage of that launcher was an N2O4/hydrazine mix restartable rocket, and N2O4 is a rather nasty chemical to spray across the countryside, not that hydrazine isn't either.

 

The Soviet/Russian Proton rocket uses N2O4/hydrazine in its first stage, so there's a lot more happy fun chemical spillage when one of those fails. Admittedly that's in Kazakhstan rather than Brevard County, but still not a pleasant prospect.

[Nolgroth]

Re: Why houses near the spaceport are so cheap

 

Question: How do you miss a 17' crack in one of the boosters?

 

Comment: It is not an anomaly, it is an explosion.

[Nyrath]

Re: Why houses near the spaceport are so cheap

 

If I'm reading correctly' date=' the 2nd stage of that launcher was an N2O4/hydrazine mix restartable rocket, and N2O4 is a rather nasty chemical to spray across the countryside, not that hydrazine isn't either.[/quote']

Isn't N204 that nasty chemical which dissolves human flesh?

[Cancer]

Re: Why houses near the spaceport are so cheap

 

Isn't N204 that nasty chemical which dissolves human flesh?

 

No mention of that nastiness here but "dissolves human flesh" seems too graphic a phrase for that rather bland site. OTOH, "pulmonary edema" (which is mentioned there) can be freely translated as "dissolves human lung tissue".

[shadowcat1313]

Re: Why houses near the spaceport are so cheap

 

the germans used 2 chemicals to fuel the ME-163

 

C-STOFF was one

C-Stoff ("C substance") was a reductant used in bipropellant rocket fuels (as a fuel itself) developed by Hellmuth Walter Kommanditgesellschaft in Germany during World War 2. It was developed for use with T-Stoff (a high test peroxide), which could also be ignited by a simple catalyst solution, Z-Stoff.

Methanol CH3OH ~57% by Weight

Hydrazine hydrate N2H4 . H2O ~30% by Weight

Water H2O ~13% by Weight

Catalyst 431 K3[Cu(CN)4]

 

The proportions of the components in C-Stoff were developed to catalyse the decomposition of T-Stoff, promote combustion with the oxygen released by the decomposition, and sustain uniform combustion through sufficient quantity of the highly reactive hydrazine. The combination of the C-Stoff, used as a rocket fuel, with the T-Stoff used as the oxidizer, often resulted in spontaneous explosion from their combined nature as a hypergolic fuel combination, necessitating strict hygiene in fueling operations; there were numerous catastrophic explosions of the Messerschmitt Me 163 aircraft which employed this fuel system. Another hazard was toxicity to humans of each of the fuels.

 

T-Stoff was the oxidizer part of a bipropellant rocket fuel combination used in Germany during World War 2. It is a stabilized high test peroxide. One of its uses was to be combined with C-Stoff (methanol-hydrazine mixture) in the Messerschmitt Me 163 and Messerschmitt Me 263 for fuel, at a ratio of three parts C-Stoff to one part T-stoff. Because the two substances were so visibly similar, a complex testing system was developed to make sure that each fuel was put into the correct tanks of the Messerschmitt Me 163, as an improper loading would cause the aircraft to explode.

 

* Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) ~80% by Weight

* Water (H2O) ~20% by Weight

* Stabilisers: Phosphoric acid, Sodium phosphate, 8-Oxyquinoline

 

Because of its extreme oxidizing potential, T-stoff was an extremely dangerous chemical to handle, so special rubberized suits were required when working with it as it would react with most cloth or other combustible material and cause it to spontaneously combust.

 

not good stuff

[Nyrath]

Re: Why houses near the spaceport are so cheap

 

That's probably what I was thinking of.

 

From http://www.swannysmodels.com/Me163B.html

Another aspect of the aircraft that presented a high degree of danger to the crew and ground personnel was the fuel for the rocket engine. The Walter HWK 109-509 used a hypergolic fuel formula, which added a true fuel of hydrazine hydrate and methanol, designated C-Stoff that burned with the oxygen-rich exhaust from the T-Stoff, used as the oxidizer, for added thrust. These fuels were highly combustible and would ignite just by making contact with each other plus should the fuel fall on human flesh it would actually begin to dissolve it. The pilot was unfortunate to have fuel tanks packed around him inside the cockpit and a fuel leak would be disastrous.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Why houses near the spaceport are so cheap

 

I just like the line in the article about Jerry Bruckheimer. Comedy Gold.

[DusterBoy]

Re: Why houses near the spaceport are so cheap

 

Yeah, as if the fireball and having tons of burning debris raining down on you weren't enough . . .