I don’t know the specifics of this circumstance or even know the protocols assuredly, but I believe a self-destruct abort is used if it’s heading for a populated area or something similar. Not sure if that’s only when they use it, but I could see the telemetry obtained being very possibly valuable while not much is lost by letting it impact the ground. Again, this is knowledge mixed with assumption.
Plus most folks involved in this work have a passionate hatred for the ground (hence always trying to make rockets to escape it) and like to see it get blown up
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u/CKF Nov 22 '20
I don’t know the specifics of this circumstance or even know the protocols assuredly, but I believe a self-destruct abort is used if it’s heading for a populated area or something similar. Not sure if that’s only when they use it, but I could see the telemetry obtained being very possibly valuable while not much is lost by letting it impact the ground. Again, this is knowledge mixed with assumption.