What distance is safe from launching spacecraft?

[Pawelk198604]

I heard that during launch, the shock wave near the touchpad is similar to explosion of  H-BOMB

I wonder from what safe-distance we could watch launch, of course if we live near spaceport

 

    

[cantab]

For Shuttle launches, the exclusion zone was a few miles. The launch control build is 3.5 miles from the pad.

[Bill Phil]

Yeah, it's usually a distance of a few miles. Don't worry, though, the plume is usually big enough to see.

[YNM]

At least, this is how they did the clearing for engine test range :

 

You can imagine it'll be larger for launch pad for the dangers of falling debris...

From the info in the video, it said to be an area of 125,000 acre - assuming a circular shape, that's more than 25 kilometers across...

Edited May 3, 2016 by YNM

[wumpus]

Depends how you feel about that guy with the boat for a recent Falcon launch.  I voted for expendable.

[G'th]

Living on Merritt Island for most of my life, I can tell you that while the safe zone is indeed about 2-4 miles depending on the rocket, you can still feel and hear the rocket from a much larger distance. Upwards of 10-25 miles away.

[Scotius]

Also, don't stand downwind from a starting rocket - they tend to spew nasty stuff into air.

[Nuke]

big enough so that if it explodes on the pad, it wont kill anybody or break anything.

[wumpus]

13 hours ago, Nuke said:

big enough so that if it explodes on the pad, it wont kill anybody or break anything.

Check out how Wallops Island got walloped (by Orbital-ATK).  You need to be farther away than anything that was damaged.