Lollie Lookin Fella - Blog Posts

Minotaur I/II rockets peel themselves like bananas during launch and if that ain't the most whimsical shit

the reason they do this is because the first stage is based on the Minuteman missile, which was designed to launch from a climate controlled missile silo. when your launch pad is out in the open in the hot, humid Virginia air, the rocket can actually get damaged by heat and condensation.

the people developing it into an orbital launch vehicle wanted to change as little as possible from the original missile to lower production costs, so instead of changing the structure of the booster or whatever, they just wrapped it in an insulating blanket. to save weight, the blanket gets peeled off by cables during launch. it's actually quite a clever solution!

they did not have to make that shit banana yellow though that ones definitely on purpose. looney tunes ass rocket.