On 10/07/2012 11:36 PM, Jeff Findley wrote:
In article m,
says...

On 10/07/2012 10:41 AM, peanutaxis wrote:
Me;1216873 Wrote:
On Jul 5, 7:07*am, peanutaxis
wrote:-
They look like hoses or something. I mean I can understand that things
need to be attached, but do they really need to be attached until the
split second the rocket takes off?

--
peanutaxis-

Yes, they do
They carry propellants. If the shuttle were to delay or scrub, they
used to replenish or drain the propellants. Dangerous hydrogen gas is
being vented off and that needs to be attached for the same reasons.

Some hoses carry conditioned air/nitrogen, others carry data and power.

Why is there hydrogen gas around. I thought it'd be all liquid and all
contained!

Hydrogen is cryogenic - it's only liquid at extremely low temperatures.
There isn't enough insulation in the world to keep hydrgen liquid
anywhere on this little planet of ours, let alone in Florida.

True, when you're using LOX and LH2 as your propellants.

Storable propellants are a different story. Unfortunately storable
oxidizers tend to have lower performance and tend to be very toxic when
compared to LOX. Kerosene, as a fuel, isn't all that bad. Obviously
it's storable at room temperature. It has lower ISP than LH2, but it's
also far more dense, which means smaller tanks and lower dry mass for a
stage. For LEO launches, it's not a bad choice at all.

Jeff


He wasn't talking about storables; he was talking about hydrogen.