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Hugin

(38,012 posts)
2. Watching a NASA documentary recently...
Sun May 3, 2026, 10:45 AM
May 3

I learned something that I had always been curious about. The tons of water shown being pumped into the launch pad as say a Saturn V was ignited and began its ascent.

It turns out that it is for sound and vibration dampening. The engines cause so much that it could cause the vehicle to tear itself apart before it even got off the ground. Even with the dampening it would be lethal for a human to be within a significant distance from the launch.

I’m sure Smuck has done away with any such measures in his cost cutting. The mystery of rapid in flight disassembling may have an explanation though.

Hmmph! A reusable rocket using a non-reusable launchpad.

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