What are those white debris that goes down when the space shuttle or the Saturn 5 lift off ?

Answer 1

Rocket fuels are made up (in part) of Liquid Oxygen which is very cold. As the rocket is fueled and standing on the launch platform ready to launch, Condensation forms on the outside of the rocket booster housings and freezes due to the temperature of the fuel inside. On launching into space, the vibration and acceleration cause the thin sheets of ice to sluff off of the outside of the rocket ship. That is what you see as white debris falling of of the rocket ship.

ICE

Answer 2

That's basically water ice; the oxidizer of both the shuttle and the S-5 is liquid oxygen, which is very, very cold. Being in Florida, and somewhat humid, ice condenses out of the atmosphere onto the vehicles. The shaking of liftoff jars it loose.

Answer 3

Usually ice. Foam falls of the shuttle too. But in the video of Saturn V Apollo launches, they are big chunks of ice.

Answer 4

it is ice that condensed onto the sides of the rocket for the saturn 5 and onto the fuel tank on the space shuttle, the rocket boosters are solid fuel and subsequently not cold.

and occasionally on the shuttle it is a piece of insulation falling off of the orbitter, mostly it is ice though.

Answer 5

I agree with the first answer it is ice pieces, they are form by the velocity and humidity in the air and then fall off the shuttle due to vibration.

Answer 6

As I understand it, it's ice on the outside of the thrusters, that comes off in sheets, due to the vibration during liftoff.

Answer 7

Ice from the super cold liquid oxygen lines.

Answer 8

ice

the liquid fuel is so cold that condensation on the outside of the spacecraft freezes.

Answer 9

it's ice from the cold rocket boosters.

ta

.

Answer 10

ice