how do they ignite the ssme on date sat apr gmt paul dietz dietz cs rochester edu writes in essence holding a match under the nozzle is just nuts one thing you absolutely must do in such an engine is to guarantee that the propellants ignite as soon as they mix within milliseconds to do otherwise is to fill your engine with a high explosive mixture which when it finally does ignite blows everything to hell definitely in one of the reports of an early test conducted by rocketdyne at their santa susanna field lab the hill above the san fernando and simi valleys the result of a hung start was described as structural failure of the combustion chamber the inspection picture showed pumps with nothing below the cc had vaporized this was described in a class i took as a typical engineering understatement disclaimer opinions stated are solely my own unless i change my mind ben muniz munizb rwtms decnet consrt rockwell com w space station freedom rocketdyne rockwell structural loads and dynamics man will not fly for fifty years wilbur to orville wright
