Hacker News Reader

Worth noting that the rocket was secured, unfueled, and the main danger was bumping into something in the dark. Sounds as risky was going to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

View on HN

Airplanes aren't pressurized to sea level... so as they went up, the air inside the tank vented outward into the airplane... and a pressure vessel can easily withstand that... but the problem is that on the way back down to land, the pressure inside the airplane went up far quicker than it could get back inside the tank, so the tank had a much lower pressure inside than that outside the tank.

You've obviously never seen what happens to a pressure vessel when the pressure gradient goes the wrong way...

Here's an idea of what can happen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zz95_VvTxZM

Imagine being on a plane when a very large object inside of it does that. It could have caused the airplane to implode as well, or have catastrophic damage.

And that it was actively imploding or crushing itself due to pressure differences.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com