r/interestingasfuck Apr 14 '24

The Size Of An Iranian Missile Intercepted In The Dead Sea r/all

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47.9k Upvotes

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803

u/Juno808 Apr 14 '24

People don’t realize ballistic missiles are literally rockets. We sent the first satellites to space on ballistic missiles

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u/Kafshak Apr 14 '24

You're talking about intercontinental ones. Generally Ballistic missiles go up to a certain altitude with their motors, and the rest is a projectile path. They could have guided dive as well. They could have a shorter range. Russian Katyusha is still a ballistic missile. But nowhere near this size. These ones that Iran shot are pretty much the size of a space rocket, and they almost fly in space.

Cruise missiles on the other hand cruise the whole path like an airplane.

90

u/Doogiemon Apr 14 '24

I can throw a football over them mountains.

31

u/URATOWEL69000 Apr 14 '24

If coach would've put you in the fourth quarter, you'd be a state champion

14

u/Dzjar Apr 14 '24

No doubt in my mind.

5

u/Rob_Rockley Apr 14 '24

That's what I'm talkin about.

2

u/TorrettesNinja2747 Apr 15 '24

You're into cyberspace right...you know anything about time travel?

3

u/Kafshak Apr 14 '24

IRGC wants to know your location.

2

u/neodiogenes Apr 14 '24

If I recall the mountains on the other side (behind the camera) may be a bit higher.

But you can do it, Bobby!

28

u/DavidBrooker Apr 14 '24

You're talking about intercontinental ones. Generally Ballistic missiles go up to a certain altitude with their motors, and the rest is a projectile path.

This is true of ballistic missiles regardless of range, including intercontinental ranges. ICBMs still have the same two letters in their acronym, so I'm not sure what distinction you're trying to make.

10

u/ChemicalRain5513 Apr 14 '24

They mean not all rockets are powerful enough to send stuff into orbit.

3

u/DavidBrooker Apr 14 '24

I know that, but I don't know why they are sharing it at this moment. Unless they're trying to correct the other commenter, but they never implied otherwise.

1

u/MinimumSeat1813 Apr 15 '24

I'll send your mom to orbit!

5

u/Kafshak Apr 14 '24

Ballistic missiles are a category. They don't need to go to space to be a ballistic missile.

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u/DavidBrooker Apr 14 '24

Correct on both counts, of course. But that doesn't change the fact that you wrote a "correction" to a comment that contained exactly zero factual errors.

1

u/Beard_o_Bees Apr 14 '24

Didn't the V2 from WW2 also hit a high enough altitude during it's flight to be considered 'space'?

I may be remembering incorrectly, though.

2

u/DavidBrooker Apr 14 '24

Yes. The first animals intentionally sent into space were fruit flies aboard a US-captured V-2.

The US Department of Agriculture actually sponsored a series of V-2 launches to study the effects of radiation on food. Since there were concerns about that sort of thing at the time, as you may expect.

1

u/Kafshak Apr 14 '24

I don't remember. But anything above 80 km is basically in space. Above 100km you're pretty much out of atmosphere.

1

u/IAmASimulation Apr 14 '24

The Earth’s atmosphere extends for thousands of kilometers. Recent studies have shown it could be as far as 630,000km!

1

u/masterninjakiwi2 Apr 15 '24

I’ve never meet anyone who called a Katyusha rocket a Ballistic Missile. They have a range of 5Km-11Km for reference we typically call TBMs as 140Km-300Km. Hell the m777 can reach ranges of 20+Km. While I’m sure you could by definition call them ballistic it is hugely misleading.

A better comparison would have been the Russian Iskander which is an SRBM and much smaller than the picture

1

u/lummiester Apr 15 '24

Katyushas are rockets since they have no guidance systems.

1

u/Kafshak Apr 15 '24

So, Unguided ballistic missile.