The hydrazine is part of a hypergolic rocket fuel system (one that uses two usually nasty chemicals that ignite on contact with each other). If they bust open that tank, and the oxidizer, they will definitely explode on contact.
That's assuming there is oxidizer on board, from the description it is possible the oxidizer was used up during the malfunction the satellite suffered at launch.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jon Acheson @ Feb 20th 2008 9:37AM
The hydrazine is part of a hypergolic rocket fuel system (one that uses two usually nasty chemicals that ignite on contact with each other). If they bust open that tank, and the oxidizer, they will definitely explode on contact.
That's assuming there is oxidizer on board, from the description it is possible the oxidizer was used up during the malfunction the satellite suffered at launch.