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Doc wrote:17' long crack, and nobody noticed?

You'd have thought...
But with a 17' long crack thee had to be more than one A hole there

When they came to the part of rockey fuel showering down, I was thinking it was like the movies, only this time it was real.

Anybody thought it was weird that the lady stayed really calm during the explosion?

Doc wrote:17' long crack, and nobody noticed?

I'd bet on that crack being in the booster's solid propellant, probably where even a visual inspection of the inner surface wouldn't have revealed it. Cracks in solid propellant can create enormous increases in exposed area, which translates to enormous increases in chamber pressure (and in this case to failure of the booster casing, i.e. an explosion, which would send pieces of the casing into the liquid-propellant main stage's fuel and/or oxidizer tanks, destroying the rocket). The fact that it got that far off the pad before it blew indicates the crack didn't go clear through to the inner surface of the propellant, and thus wouldn't have been visible on a pre-launch inspection.

I came out to check an electrical problem on a Navy jet that had been cleared for takeoff by it's ground crew that had a flat tire.