henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) (03/22/91)
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) >From: emory!Dixie.Com!stan@gatech.edu (Stan Brown) >>X-1, X-2 - Loss of 4 vehicles, some crew, and one carrier aircraft >>due to a chemical in a gasket that was explosive when in contact with LOX. > > I hadn't heard of this could you tell us more about it? The problem wasn't a "chemical", actually. The real problem was that nobody really appreciated that almost *any* organic material soaked in LOX is a powerful explosive. The LOX plumbing used gaskets made of a chemically treated form of leather. They finally figured this out when they had a gasket explode while the plane containing it was still on the ground. Even in rockets, liquid hydrogen gets all the bad press but liquid oxygen is much more dangerous. -- "[Some people] positively *wish* to | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology believe ill of the modern world."-R.Peto| henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry