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Anyone who watched the video of the Zenit explosion will be surprised to see how little damage was actually done to the SeaLaunch platform.
Posted by Rand Simberg at February 27, 2007 05:18 AM
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I wasn't terribly surprised. A kerosene fireball like that isn't going to generate much overpressure -- it can't burn fast enough -- and the duration is also not going to be very long anyway, so there isn't much time for heat to soak into structural members or penetrate insulation. If they did their engineering properly then sensitive equipment and most wiring would have been sealed away so no flame could get to it.
I wouldn't be surprised if it scorched the paint, though, and possibly had some localized metal oxidation where the gas was particularly oxygen-rich and hot.
Posted by Paul Dietz at February 27, 2007 11:00 AM
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