I was there. I was a Shuttle engineer for 14 years.
You want a source? Go look at the drawings, but I’ll bet those got deep sixed.
Do you believe what you read in Aviation Week? I was in a meeting where my company (not North American) used to PLANT propaganda stories in it by paying off reporters to push our stuff. Do you trust the MSM?
If people had not talked, do you think that North American’s warnings to NASA before the Apollo fire would seen the light of day? NASA got away with blaming North American and they retired Harrison Storms, but eventually the truth came out that North American told NASA NOT to run a test at 17 PSI pure O2 with velcro all over the inside of the capsule.
Believe what you like. Every time I have been close to a major story, the press ALWAYS got it wrong. Journalists are lazy and normally believe what the guvmint tells them.
I worked on NASA projects for almost 20 years, and I have a high regard for the dedicated engineers who gave their all to our space program. However, every time there was a major foul up (Apollo fire, Challenger, Columbia) there was at least a partial cover up.