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There wouldn't have been much point in a self destruct. The rocket launched, then it looked like there was an explosion in or near the boosters (which apparently caused a loss of thrust), then it fell back onto the pad and exploded. Blowing it up at a higher altitude just would have spread the debris a little farther.

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According to the press conference just now, the range safety officer apparently did send a destruct signal. The signal probably would have been sent very close to the time the rocket hit the ground. In my relatively ignorant opinion, it was going to blow up one way or another. We'll probably get more details later.

Out of curiosity, what does this signal actually trigger?

Each rocket contains conventional explosives which are used to destroy the vehicle if attitude control is lost during flight. It's to prevent the rocket from causing more damage by possibly crashing into a populated area.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Range_safety

Usually it's a rope of explosives running up the barrel of the rocket. The goal is to quickly remove structural integrity, and the rocket takes care of blowing itself up immediately.

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