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A comment on SpaceX Soft Lands Falcon 9 Rocket First Stage. Parent comment

Re:SpaceX Soft Lands Falcon 9 Rocket First Stage by icegreentea on Tuesday July 22, 2014 @05:14PM (#8071591)
Probably not exploded, just that the lateral stresses that the rocket is designed for.

Rockets have to withstand a lot of different types of forces (axial, all sorts of vibrational, probably hoop type stresses), but massive lateral shocks aren't really one of them.

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Re:SpaceX Soft Lands Falcon 9 Rocket First Stage by mbell on Tuesday July 22, 2014 @05:36PM (#8071702)
> Probably not exploded

I don't know about that: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/488718649515986944

Even with minimal fuel, the tanks are still highly pressurized, a loss in hull integrity would result is a rapid depressurization of those tanks. It may not have been a fiery explosion, but I would bet it made a hell of a bang.

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