I visited the office of a real rocket scientist – the guy who invented the segmented solid booster, founded United Technologies, worked on Titan IIIC & Minuteman and was one of the “ICBM Pioneers” (a USAF club).
Here you see one of the many interesting artifacts adorning his office. The statue is the pooled remains of a molten forklift.
The segmented solid boosters used on the Shuttle and ICBMs are just huge. A 72,000 lb segment caught fire while the forklift was removing the mandrel from the center… At first, itt was just some sparking embers on a piece that broke loose. The workers evacuated promptly to safety. The burning fragment eventually ignited the segment, creating massive radiant heat. They thought the other segments were far enough away, but alas, the heat ignited four more segments…. A telephone pole a mile away burst into flames.
He also found an old 16mm film reel that I am converting to digital. It shows an ICBM launch gone wild and self-destructing. I don’t think it has been seen for 40 years.
He has so many interesting stories…. After WW II, the U.S. launched a captured V2 from White Sands. They went up on the blockhouse roof to watch it. It rose about 9K ft, but then turned straight toward them, and they scrambled. Then at about 600 ft, it turned South heading for Mexico. It landed in a Juarez cemetery and the remaining fuel exploded. The Mexican gov’t was not overjoyed.
When a 1.2 million Newton-second motor CATOs, it is quite a spectacle, much larger than the ones I have seen so far…
Here is an incredible video of an Delta CATO at low altitude… taking out the cars at Cape Canaveral.
Hopefully, more stories to come from my ICBM buddy… Meanwhile, I am planning a trip to Cape Canaveral to watch the Shuttle STS 118 launch…. Will bring cameras!
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