• Question: is there a certain height a space craft can go before there is a chance of fatalities eg. space craft imploding or air getting too thin.Thank you for reading

    Asked by TR-8R to Rochelle, Julia, Jon F, Beth, Adrian on 18 Jan 2016.
    • Photo: Jon Farrow

      Jon Farrow answered on 18 Jan 2016:


      Once you’re past about 100km (also known as the Karman line), you’re in space. That means there’s basically no air. So if your spacecraft got that far, it’ll probably fine (structurally) to go any height.

      Engineers talk about this thing called Max Q, the time where the spacecraft will be under maximum stress. That’s the scariest part of flight for an engineer and it’s what they design for. It takes a little while for the spacecraft to pick up speed, but as it rises through the atmosphere, the air gets thinner. There is some point where the spacecraft will be going fast but will still be low enough that it runs into a lot of air.

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