Re:Should we trust space flights to open source? (Score 1)

I don't know the rules that the ESA has to live with, but if they're anything like the rules the DOD imposes on rocket launches, if something goes wrong, you just blow up the rocket. Even the shuttle's SRBs have the equivalent of a really long stick of dynamite to make sure that, in case of an accident, no pieces bigger than my hand or so would ever reach the surface.

The purpose of a range safety system is not to "blow up the rocket", it is to terminate thrust, allowing the rocket, or pieces thereof, to follow a ballistic trajectory into a safe impact zone. That is what the linear shaped charges do to the SRB. They "unzip" the motor casing, causing the internal pressure and thrust to drop to near zero.