Re: Plutonium on Next Atlas V - Bad Idea?

In article <7in1g1l1su1ahmf57738e249j6n5nhaeso@xxxxxxx>,
Cardman <do-not@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>What has been ignored in this thread so far is that launch failures
>usually do not involve explosions at all...

Not failures of liquid-fuel systems, no. Failed solids, unfortunately, do
have a fairly substantial probability of exploding -- that's one of their
major failure modes, as witness a couple of spectacular Titan III/IV
launches.

However, a failure down in the strap-ons isn't too likely to do
catastrophic damage to a payload on top.
--
No, the devil isn't in the details. | Henry Spencer
The devil is in the *assumptions*. | henry@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
.