A rocket is a controlled bomb. The fully fueled Saturn V ‘moon rocket’ held an explosive force of about half a kiloton of TNT, enough to do some serious damage if catastrophe had struck. And as much as the recent Antares launch failure has captured the attention of social media, it was just business as usual – rockets are tricky beasts, you expect them to fail, you just try to minimize the chances of it happening.

Image: One of the lucky ones...Saturn V launch (NASA)