The reason rockets explode
I direct your attention to this NASA historical document on the F-1 engine they used on the Saturn V...http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/saturn_apollo/documents/F-1_Engine.pdf
This is a bigger engine than Orbital Sciences is running, but this will give you the idea. Look at a few items:
Fuel Pump
The fuel pump supplies fuel to the thrust chamber and gas generator at a flowrate of 15,471 gallons per minute.
Oxidizer Pump
The oxidizer pump supplies oxidizer to the thrust chamber and gas generator at a flowrate of 24,811 gallons per minute.
Turbine
The turbine, producing 55,000 brake horsepower, drives the fuel and oxidizer pumps.
If you look at the attached document you'll notice the fuel and oxidizer lines are about two feet in diameter.
Rocket scientists live on the horns of a dilemma. On one hand, the rocket must be strong enough not to break when you pump 15,000 gallons per minute of kerosene into it. On the other, every pound of material used to ensure the rocket WON'T break when you pump 15,000 gpm's worth of kerosene into it is a pound of cargo you won't be paid to lift with your engine. Hence, the art of rocketry is the ability to be able to make a rocket that's exactly strong enough to not blow up.
And also strong enough to survive being stored in a cave in Siberia for the past fifty years.
= new reply since forum marked as read
