Rockets explode (or, Why we have range safety)

Occasionally, you hear some grousing about range safety and all of the Air Force requirements for flight termination systems and so on. Well, there's a reason for range safety. People in the space biz know the reason because they live on razor-thin margins of error. But for those who might not realize what range safety does, and why it's especially important to those of us living here on the Space Coast or near other launch ranges, take a look at these videos of bad days at the Cape. The Air Force safety guys are protecting us from this happening over our neighborhoods, or schools, or shopping malls, or anywhere else people congregate. You'll remember these launches, but many of you probably have not seen some of this footage.

CHECK OUT THESE VIDEOS:
1997: Delta 2 failure over complex 17.
1998: Titan 4 explodes off Space Coast.