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A comment on Orbital Sciences Antares rocket explodes after liftoff. Parent comment

Re:Orbital Sciences Antares rocket explodes after liftoff by _kst_ on Tuesday October 28, 2014 @09:37PM (#8524989)
According to the press conference just now, the range safety officer apparently did send a destruct signal. The signal probably would have been sent very close to the time the rocket hit the ground. In my relatively ignorant opinion, it was going to blow up one way or another. We'll probably get more details later.
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Re:Orbital Sciences Antares rocket explodes after liftoff by Stolpe on Wednesday October 29, 2014 @04:47AM (#8526118)
Out of curiosity, what does this signal actually trigger?
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Re:Orbital Sciences Antares rocket explodes after liftoff by kogepathic on Wednesday October 29, 2014 @07:40AM (#8526615)
Each rocket contains conventional explosives which are used to destroy the vehicle if attitude control is lost during flight. It's to prevent the rocket from causing more damage by possibly crashing into a populated area.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Range_safety

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Re:Orbital Sciences Antares rocket explodes after liftoff by smackfu on Wednesday October 29, 2014 @09:15AM (#8526960)
Usually it's a rope of explosives running up the barrel of the rocket. The goal is to quickly remove structural integrity, and the rocket takes care of blowing itself up immediately.
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