claire
12-12-2002, 05:23 AM
As usual click on the flag down the page for an(more or less) English version
http://permanent.sciencesetavenir.com/sci_20021212.OBS3969.html
jamming
12-12-2002, 06:36 AM
We all have Rocket explosions at one point or another, people just don't realize that this is truly amazing use of technology, they are simply using a controlled explosion to get something into space. Their is an early film of the rocket launches at the Early Cape Canaveral, at that time they talked about a successful launch as clearing the tower before it blew up.
The Altlas rockets where so thinned skinned that they would crumple without fuel in the tanks. When they would inspect the insides of them they would put big fans to keep the air pressure high in the tanks and braced it open with "two by fours" lengths of wood. When they ran quality test on the fueled rockets at Vandenburg AFS, where some of the first ICBM's sat on their pads in the open and they discover cellulose contamination in the fuel they would have to drain the rocket and take out the 2x4 they left behind inside the tank.
Here's another article (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3009177&thesection=news&thesubsection=world) on the failed launch. From the looks of it, this pretty much spells the end of the French rocket program.