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Re:A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has exploded at Cape Canaveral by dalke on Thursday September 01, 2016 @11:48AM (#12406267)
That links to http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2323/1 where one of the comments is:

> Like Russian vehicles, there is no flight termination system that receives ground commands onboard Chinese launch vehicles. Only US and ESA launch sites have such a system. Correction, Falcon 1 did not have such a system for launching on Kwaj.

Re:A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has exploded at Cape Canaveral by dogma1138 on Thursday September 01, 2016 @12:16PM (#12406519)
That's because usually the US and ESA/France launch from densely populated areas.

The launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center/CC is effectively about 50 mile from downtown Orlando, Baikonur is in the middle of nowhere.

Re:A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has exploded at Cape Canaveral by T0T0R0 on Thursday September 01, 2016 @02:29PM (#12407710)
Okay, rockets that can go very high, can still crash very far away.

An unpredictable, malfunctioning rocket could still million-to-one itself onto a school bus filled with children, halfway across a continent.

Re:A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has exploded at Cape Canaveral by dalke on Thursday September 01, 2016 @03:18PM (#12408098)
Phlarp's original comment was about 'a "Range Safety Officer" on the ground whose entire job is to determine if and when to deploy this self destruct system.'

The text I quoted implies there is an onboard flight termination system, even if there is no Range Safety Officer who can send external commands.

FWIW, a part from an exploded rocket, like the engine, could still destroy a school bus filled with children. The odds are very hard to estimate, and made more complicated in that there are few failure modes where a rocket failure halfway across a continent, at supersonic speeds, would reach the ground without breaking long before.

Re:A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has exploded at Cape Canaveral by T0T0R0 on Sunday September 11, 2016 @08:37PM (#12476468)
Congratulations on replying to me. I'm sure you're feeling good about it. I just wanted to let your know that I noticed, and feel special too.