Scott Lowther wrote:
Ed Kyle wrote:


The overall reliability record is good for solid
boosters, but when they've gone, they've gone
nasty in a hurry. I'm thinking of the Titan 34D
in 1986, of a Titan 4 in the early 90s, and of
the Delta II during the late 90s and a Delta
during the late 70s. These all ended in big
detonations.

[nerd] NONE of these detonated. [/nerd]

Sure they did, when the range safety systems
initiated. The dictonary says that a detonation
is "the act of detonating an explosive".

Irregardless, solids have, as AW&ST put it, "rare,
but instantaneously catastrophic, failure modes"
that liquids do not have. These flights demonstrated
some of "instantaneously catastrophic" modes.

- Ed Kyle