Was Challenger Shuttle Explosion Sabotage

How likely is it that the space x rocket that exploded was sabotaged by Lockheed Martin?

I’d say pretty low. They’re a professional company with quite the reputation, and have many very good contracts with the US military. I see absolutely no reason why they would sabotage it. It’s not like anything controversial was in the payload – just a communication satellite for FaceBook. Lockheed Martin has no bitter rivalry with SpaceX or FaceBook, they aren’t really strapped for cash, they are an old and respected company… There’s simply no reason that they would sabotage SpaceX’s rocket, and face being caught, which would be a death sentence for the company. So, chances are basically 0% that they sabotaged it. It was likely something simple, unlucky, or a random person who just really hates SpaceX/Facebook. I find it very unlikely that any companies or even any people at all sabotaged it. I’m sure there’s a more rational explanation.

Did the Russians try to sabotage the Apollo program and scupper the race to the moon?

Not as far as I know.Apollo’s design did reflect some early concern about possible Russian sabotage. For example, in the air-ground conversations you’d often hear the ground ask the astronauts to go to “p00 and accept” when doing a ground navigation update and “go back to block” afterwards.This referred to a switch in the cockpit that normally blocked the onboard computer from accepting commands from the ground unless one of the astronauts explicitly allowed it. Modern security techniques like public key authentication hadn’t been invented yet, so this was their simple way of making it harder for the Russians (or anyone) to hack into the uplink. P00 (pronounced the way you think) referred to computer program number zero, the idle program, that let the ground do its thing. This was usually to update the computer with the latest “state vector”, the ground’s best estimate of position and velocity derived from radio tracking.The designers were so concerned about possible Russian jamming of Apollo communications (or loss of communications for some other reason) that they made it possible for the astronauts to navigate back to earth on their own. As a backup to ground radio tracking they could determine their own state vectors with optical sighting of the earth and moon. Apollo 8 tested these methods and showed they were nearly as good as ground tracking.Remember all this was done with the primitive computers of the 1960s. The onboard computer was the first ever built entirely with integrated circuits, but it was really just a digital autopilot. The real number-crunching for things like engine burns was done on big IBM mainframes back in Houston and the results read up to the astronauts who simply wrote them down on paper. Many of these maneuvers would have been used only to return to earth in an emergency should Apollo lose communications — due to Russian jamming or for any other reason.

Why did INS Sindhurakshak explode?

With a disquieted mind, as I read newspapers and surfed net frantically to know more about the possible causes of the spifflication of INS Sindhurakshak, memories of the numerous heated discussions, full of expletives, between my father and his various colleagues (about how inefficient and outdated the technologies being used in their submarines were and the potential threats they possessed) filled my mind.What most believe and expect the cause of this mishap, hopefully if not sabotage, is the failure of the outdated safety system and other superannuated technologies being used in our submarines. When the batteries of a submarine are being charged, it releases hydrogen (a highly inflammable gas) which is absorbed by a safety system so as to not allow its concentration to increase above a certain level. However, our submarines are till date using one of the most outdated safety systems; infact none of our submarines are equipped with AIP (Air Independent Propulsion) which reduces the need to charge batteries to a great extend and thereby reducing the possibility of a fire breakout. The ill-fated Sindhurakshak, in high possibilities, met its tragic end because of the hydrogen gas that instigated fire resulting in the detonation of torpedoes and other missiles inside consuming 18 precious lives.To its credit, Indian government has invested a few times into projects to incorporate new technologies in our submarines. However as has been the trend with almost all major projects in India, they went awry and were shelved following allegations of CORRUPTION. A cliche very familiar to the Indian ears and perhaps laughable.The important question is not what the exact reason for the mishap was, for perhaps with the level of transparency with which our government functions, a commoner like us might not as well come to know the exact reason at all, but to learn from what has happened. As they say, there's always a silver lining behind every cloud. Hopefully our defence ministry would realize the life threatening conditions our soldiers are working under and work towards incorporating better and newer, if not latest, technologies, at least in the department that deals with the safety of our soldiers. PS - my dad is a submariner.

If the classified space shuttle mission STS-27 failed like the Columbia disaster, what would be the government and international reaction?

Most likely, DoD will not divulge all the details, fx what the payload was.NASA and DoD will conduct their separate investigations. DoD will have the upper hand, since they know all the important stuff on board.There will be a time of mourning internationally. Anyone who has the courage to willingly sit in a rocket with extremely explosive fuel two meters near them, stare into the vast space (which is trying to destroy your craft with every milimeter, and every second you fly through it) and keep their cool in the reentry which generates heat half of the Sun’s temperature, for their country and humanity, deserves to be called a hero.Without doubt, there will be theories going wild in the media. Everyone knows it was a military mission, ranging from sabotage on the launch pad to shootdowns.The Shuttle program will be delayed and severely damaged. This was just two years after Challenger. Very likely, the Shuttle program will be canceled way earlier, eliminating Shuttle-Mir and the Space Station Freedom/ISS.Columbia is probably saved. NASA concluded by itself that there is danger of part strikes on ascent, they will now keep a better eye on launches, and eliminate such strikes. That is, if the Shuttle still has itself plugged in.The public will lose faith in NASA.