This picture is of all the Saturn V s that were launched.
There were 13 and I think about all the S1C Rocket Stages lying on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
This is very hard for me to write about. One day "the Boss" called our group together to make an announcement. He pointed to a large locked file cabinet with a vertical iron bar and a big red stripe. There was always a guard around the cabinet. The boss pointed to the cabinet in a casual way and told us the cabinet contained the destruct codes for our space stage. What???? I was terrified. Were we responsible for the destruction of our beautiful stage if something went wrong on the Saturn V? OMG- What to do? What to think? After reflection I realized that if anyone had to unlock that file cabinet, it would be too late for anything. So logic told me that it was a back-up.
I found out recently that every stage had shaped charges in each fuel tank so if the rocket went rogue, the command module would be blown off by the escape tower and the rest of the Saturn V would blow up so thoroughly that there would just small pieces left. Still, it was horrible to contemplate.
Can you imagine what a rocket bigger than the Statue of Liberty would do to a major city like Atlanta?
Never has anyone so loved the Saturn V as I did.
OK, Sara, I'll try reposting my comment just using my Google account, since my Technorati account doesn't seem to be working on OpenID.
ReplyDeleteHere's the link to my Technorati page with the blog links, etc.:
http://www.technorati.com/people/technorati/grvaughan/
I never really thought about it much, but I guess it must have been a bit hard to have the thing you're working on always ending up in the bottom of the ocean! On the other hand, I think some of the S-IVB stages ended up crashing on the Moon, which seems a bit more glamorous :)
Either is better than what happened with the Ariane V that rained shrapnel down all over its launch site.
As far as range safety goes, I had a similar shock about the space shuttle. Few people realize it also carries charges on the SRBs and External Tank, which is worse since there's no launch escape system.
I got a link from the Wikipedia article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Range_Safety_Officer
to the Rogers Report, which has a section (about 1/3 way down) describing this (not something NASA likes to talk about):
http://history.nasa.gov/rogersrep/v1ch9.htm
"Television coverage of the Challenger accident vividly showed the Solid Rocket Boosters emerging from the ball of fire and smoke. The erratic and uncontrolled powered flight of such large components could have posed a potential danger to populated areas. The responsible official accordingly destroyed the Solid Rocket Boosters. ...
Every major vehicle flown from the Cape Canaveral area has carried an explosive destruct system ...
Both Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters and the External Tank are fitted with explosive charges. These can be detonated on the command of the range safety officer if the vehicle crosses the limits established by flight analysis before launch and the vehicle is no longer in controlled flight. The determination of controllability is made by the flight director in Mission Control, Houston ...
After the first four test flights, however, the ejection seats were deactivated. Retaining the range safety package when the crew could no longer escape was an emotional and controversial decision. In retrospect, however, the Challenger accident has demonstrated the need for some type of range safety measure. ..."
There's also a diagram of the charge locations:
http://history.nasa.gov/rogersrep/v1p185.htm
Like everything in aerospace, there's always more to it than you expect. It's important to have some way to prevent the shuttle from flying into Miami, but hopefully the chances of that are quite remote.
Here's some more links about the Shuttle RSS:
ReplyDeletehttp://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/reference/shutref/srb/safety.html
"The shuttle vehicle has three RSSs. One is located in each SRB and one in the external tank. Any one or all three are capable of receiving two command messages (arm and fire) transmitted from the ground station. The RSS is used only when the shuttle vehicle violates a launch trajectory red line. ..."
Popular Mechanics has a new article in the June 2008 issue about those "launch trajectory red lines", with diagram:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/air_space/4262479.html
What great but sad information. It is very hard for me to think about the destruction of a beautiful rocket and the people who ride them. Thank you for all the great information and links. I hope our readers will learn from this.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I wonder about NASA.