No one really cared about the specifics of sound in space in Alien. Suspension of disbelief = enjoyment.
Shit, the Nostromo explodes three times. 
And Ridley's explanation was three is a good number Alien tends to get a free pass compared to the other films' lack of scientific 'integrity'.
'Alien' is chock-full of scientifically-implausible stuff, anyone who thinks it was trying to be "hard sci-fi" is kidding themselves. The characters are relatable people, the sets look appropriately lived-in and "real", but it's still not "hard sci-fi".
Very few movies are hard sci-fi -- most of them make concessions on some level for artistic/storytelling reasons,
and rightly so.
No one really cared about the specifics of sound in space in Alien. Suspension of disbelief = enjoyment.
Shit, the Nostromo explodes three times.
And Ridley's explanation was three is a good number Alien tends to get a free pass compared to the other films' lack of scientific 'integrity'.
Well no, the Nostromo explodes once, and the refinery presumably in two stages. Insofar as the suspension of disbelief goes in Alien, that's the least of many possible examples.
The first explosion was kind of blindingly huge, I doubt the refinery even survived that first blast, let alone the second one.
