When my father retired from NASA, some of the people he had worked with at KSC presented him with a plaque. Mounted on the plaque was half of one of the hold down nuts from an SRB. Those things are huge.
For those who don't know, the shuttle stack is bolted to the pad by the SRBs, and upon SRB ignition, the nuts are blown in half with explosives. The pieces are captured by devices on the SRBs, and go along for the ride. (If the nuts fail to fracture, the thrust from the stack is more than enough to break the bolt.)
__________________
"Never ask a World War II history buff for a 'final solution' to your problem!"
|