Quote:
Originally Posted by AJames
Gosh! Duck and Cover...
Odd Question: if you knew such a weight was coming down over the neighbourhood, would you have time to see the decent, and at at the last moment just get of the way? Let's hope it drops over the ocean somewhere!
I presume such satellites would break up in the fiery return before hitting the ground - which means it wouldn't be a problem, though if nuclear powered and it was fairly old you probably be worried about radioactive fallout. 
|
Old mate of mine, lived in England as a kid during WW2.
He told me that late in the war he was still evacuated from London to the quiet of rural life north of London, away from the V2 blitz. Anyway one afternoon he was outside of his house in the street and he looked up in the sky and saw a star gradually appear in the sky. He kept looking as the star got brighter, and brighter, and brighter, and then bigger and get really bright, and then saw it explode!
Old pat said he had an instinct to throw himself on the ground, and saw what eventually proved to be the remains of the engine assembly of a V2 missile demolish a garage just yards away.
What Pat had seen was the terminal dive of a V2's re-entry phase, and because V2's didn't have very good heatshields occasionally the 1 tonne warhead would "cook off" at some altitude due to dynamic heating, before it hit the ground. You can guess what would have happened if the warhead hadn't cooked off, as Pat said the star he was watching had no apparent movement. Pat died of prostate cancer in 1993. But he could have died in 1944!
"*(27) Oct. 04, (16.35 hours) - Battery 444, Rijsterbos, Middenleane, rocket fired, impacted at Spixworth no damage. This rocket fell apart before impact scattered over a large area. The entire engine, parts of the radio, etc., recovered and sent to research institute for Air Travel at Farnborough."
http://www.v2rocket.com/start/deployment/timeline.html
"Late that evening, an explosion rocked the Hellesdon area. An estimated 400 houses within a two-mile radius were damaged in some manner. The following day British authorities recovered the remains of a V-2, which broke up in the air before impact near Spixworth. The engine and various important parts were sent to Air Institute at Farnborough for analysis. —Robert Collis & Winston G. Ramsey, The Blitz Then and Now Volume 3, 1990"
http://www.v2rocket.com/start/deploy...erke-rijs.html
If you take the time read the information from these links you will be astounded at how many rockets were fired, and how many people were killed instantly with no warning. Werner Von Braun's dream exacted a heavy toll.