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A comment on Why Bezos’ rocket is unprecedented–and worth taking seriously. Parent comment

Re:Why Bezos’ rocket is unprecedented–and worth taking serio... by hoorayimhelping on Tuesday September 13, 2016 @01:13PM (#12490269)
>An aerodynamic vehicle could be extremely safe; in the event of a failure, you could just glide back to the ground. The possibility of violent explosion would be practically non-existent.

That is a ridiculous statement, considering the deaths that have happened during reentry

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Columbia_disaste...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_11

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Komarov

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Re:Why Bezos’ rocket is unprecedented–and worth taking serio... by extrapickles on Tuesday September 13, 2016 @01:41PM (#12490543)
Don't forget that the vehicle would be leaving the launcher at greater than reentry speeds, so it would be even worse than a normal re-entry.
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Re:Why Bezos’ rocket is unprecedented–and worth taking serio... by jsprogrammer on Tuesday September 13, 2016 @02:53PM (#12491167)
Not all vehicles are safe. The shuttle was >100,000kg incoming. Passenger vehicles to orbit could be on the order of 1,000kg, which would be much easier to make safe for gliding. Emergency parachutes could even be feasible.
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