[SIKSUKR]

Originally Posted by Nauset

Here are some numbers I pulled up with a google search on a real space craft.

Space shuttle fuel consumed in a launch: 3.5 million pounds.

If water, instead of fuel, were pumped by the three Space Shuttle Main Engines, an average family-sized swimming pool could be drained in 25 seconds.

The three space shuttle main engines generate the maximum equivalent of about 37 million horsepower. The fuel pump alone delivers as much as 71,000 horsepower, the oxygen pump delivers about 23,000. Just as a basis of comparison, the fuel pump alone is probably the equivalent horsepower of 28 locomotives. And with the horsepower of the oxygen pump, that's probably the equivalent of 11 more locomotives.

You could also compare the Shuttle engines to a Corvette. The three main engines plus the two solid rocket motors deliver the horsepower of about 120,000 Corvettes.

Each of the Space Shuttle's solid rocket boosters burns 5 tons of propellant per second.

It only takes the Space Shuttle about 8 minutes to accelerate to its orbital speed of more than 17,000 miles per hour.

14 astronauts have died in the two shuttle accidents.

That's beautifull Nauset but that rocket won't be terrorizing kids camps or ruining shorelines so it's no concern to some.Now the emisions and the waste of energy resources might be another story.