More exploding space shuttles

Delta 2, destroyed by range safety device

Did you know that the Space Shuttle has a (euphemistically named) range safety device? The range safety device is rather like the Enterprise's self-destruct system in Star Trek, but without the tedious countdown or opportunity to escape. There is one shaped charge on each solid booster.

There is a person called the range safety officer, whose job is to press the button to destroy the assembly if it veers off course. Imagine having that job! Bear in mind that there are almost no realistic circumstances where the solid boosters would need to be destroyed when they had already detached from the orbiter; nearly all possible applications of the range safety system would involve destroying the whole thing.

For the moment, it's only been used once; on the Challenger boosters after the orbiter had already been destroyed. Still, though, very, very creepy, especially for the operator. All manned spacecraft have range safety devices, but in most other cases either the occupants (Vostok, Gemini, Buran) or the whole capsule (Mercury, Apollo, Soyuz) will have been removed to safety beforehand. Besides the Shuttle, Voshkod, only used four times, is the only one where the range safety officer is likely to have to blow up people; you'd wonder how they get people for these jobs...