Real-life Kerbal?

[tazbertair]

Hi, being a bit of a nerd I was reading the history of Project Mercury (This New Ocean). I am in the section about flight tests, especially testing the escape mechanisms. This little passage caught my eye...

On Saturday March 18, 1961, after a four-hour delay caused by checkout problems, Little Joe 5A roared and soared up from the beach at Wallops Island at 11 minutes before noon. The takeoff looked good, but 20 seconds later and 14 seconds too early the capsule escape rocket again fired without the capsule. Warren North described the flight graphically:

At 35 seconds the normal abort signal released the capsule clamp ring. A single retrorocket, which was installed as an emergency separation device, received a premature firing signal at 43 seconds. The dynamic pressure at this point was 400psf - ten times as great as dynamic pressure at apogee where emergency capsule separation should have taken place. The capsule tumbled immediately upon separating and narrowly missed the booster as it decelerated. The retropack and escape tower were inadvertently jettisoned or torn off as the capsule tumbled. Apparently the centrifugal force and/or the escape tower removed the antenna cannister, deploying both the main and reserve parachutes. The capsule descended on both parachutes, which were only slightly damaged during high q deployment.

Hands up if you've done something similar......

[astropapi1]

I eject from the exploding rocket, forget to turn sideways, and eventually the rocket slamd into my descending capsule killing the three pilots.

[LaydeeDem]

This sounds EXACTLY like all of my test launches. Narrowly missing the booster, everything destroyed but the parachutes. Yep. That sounds about right.

[cypher_00]

Look at this for a "successful" escape tower test !

[SmallChange]

*Ninja'd by Cypher*

That vid is awesome

Edited May 25, 2013 by SmallChange

[drakesdoom]

I have had side booster detach and fly past the main body, terminated launch shutting down main stack and ejecting capsule, and then one of the boosters smashed the capsule as it was descending on chutes...

[Panichio]

Well, with my failed rockets, I don't "narrowly" escape the booster. Instead, everything goes every which way and eventually collides into each other.

[Specialist290]

I once built an escape tower from stock parts that worked flawlessly except for one small detail: The sepratrons dumped exhaust straight onto the capsule, destroying it and killing the test crew inside.

Later, I figured out how to rotate parts in the VAB using the QWEASD keys.

[cypher_00]

Sorry SmallChange it is indeed a great bit of history.

[Godot]

In my game the escape tower definitely has saved the life of countless Kerbals (in contrast to the RL escape tower).

It is definitely the piece of equipment that goes into all of my spacecraft