In Dec. of 1957, the U.S. attempted to launch its first satellite.The rocket blew up on the pad. My question?

Question

is ....as the rocket explodes, you can see the nose cone "flimsily" fall off the top....like its hardly attached at all. I always wondered how they expected it to stay attached as the rocket passed through maximum dynamic pressure. Hope someone knows what I'm talking about and can answer, thanks!

Answer 1

Y'know, I remember that one too, but I had never wondered about it. It was as if it had just been 'placed' on top of the rocket, rather than bolted to it. The only thing I can figure is, perhaps the nose cone was attached by explosive bolts, which fired during the explosion, thus leaving the cone unattached to the rocket. Good question!

Answer 2

I do know what your talking about.

My answer is only a best guess, so please take it with a

BIG grain of salt.

Rockets are built to withstand the forces of launch & flight, those forces are symetrical & distributed along the vertical (or long) axis of the vehicle.   The explosion which destroyed that rocket was asymetrical & distributed unevenly, causing the rocket to topple.   In addition, the force of the explosion may have also have generatred sufficient force to shear the bolts which attached the nose cone to the booster, or possibly have detonated those bolts (explosive bolts to seperate the payload once in orbit).  

Remember, even though the forces involved in launching a rocket are tremendous, those forces are (mostly) predictable & controlled, but not entirely (especially at that time).     However explosions like the one which destroyed that rocket are chaotic & uncontrolled, applying unanticiparted force to areas not designed to withstand it.

Answer 3

Since the forces are symmetric and tend to push the nose cone on, it doesn't need anything other than gravity and acceleration to hold it on.

This was very early days for satellites, and they didn't know what they were doing as well as they do today.

Answer 4

It was designed to survive drag forces pushing it back, not much else. The explosion shook it loose from it's restraints. Early payload fairings had been designed less complex as they are now - and have been much smaller as they are now.