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With that many people watching from the road, how does SpaceX guard against threats? I imagine there are just enough crazy people out there with motivation to get attention by taking shots at it with their rifles. Is it far enough away from the road to be safe from a sniper attack?
With that many people watching from the road, how does SpaceX guard against threats? I imagine there are just enough crazy people out there with motivation to get attention by taking shots at it with their rifles. Is it far enough away from the road to be safe from a sniper attack?
Seven miles is WAY outside the range of any sniper rifle.
For context, a 14.5x114mm cartridge fires to about 1.5 miles; the more popular .308 Winchester cartridge only goes half a mile [1].
The first flight of the Falcon Heavy promises to be a public spectacle, with NASA selling out $195 viewing party tickets.
I'm just a touch sad that NASA is selling tickets for an endeavour one would have ideally hoped they would have spearheaded.
With that many people watching from the road, how does SpaceX guard against threats? I imagine there are just enough crazy people out there with motivation to get attention by taking shots at it with their rifles. Is it far enough away from the road to be safe from a sniper attack?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seven miles is WAY outside the range of any sniper rifle.
> Seven miles is WAY outside the range of any sniper rifle For context, a 14.5x114mm cartridge fires to about 1.5 miles; the more popular .308 Winchester cartridge only goes half a mile [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sniper_rifle
A 50 cal can go well beyond that the chances of hitting a man sized target are pretty slim that said it’s maximum range is 7000m hitting a space rocket sized target is quite possible at that range.
With bigger caliber rifles like the ones used for avalanche control you probably can get to 7 miles and beyond but those are effectively cannons at that point.
That said if you really want to fuck up a launch there are plenty of drones or RC planes that you could use to ram the rocket with or without an explosive payload.
Which is why they launch from a military base with arguably quite good perimeter security that goes well beyond the range of its fence.