Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

To: WhiskeyX

Ironically, the actual destruction of Challenger was just sheer bad luck.

The burn-thru at the SRB joint was completely random and only by bad luck occurred in the roughly 90 degree arc facing the External Tank (ET).

If it had been somewhere along the other 270 degrees, the slight loss of thrust could have been offset by a small gimbaling of the Main Engines (ME) and the Shuttle could have made orbit with little or no change. In fact at the time of the explosion, the ME’s were already moving to offset the loss of thrust.

Instead the flame from the joint cut into the ET and severed one of the lower struts mounting the SRB, resulting in explosion that destroyed the Shuttle.


20 posted on 01/28/2016 10:36:11 AM PST by chaosagent (Remember, no matter how you slice it, forbidden fruit still tastes the sweetest!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]


To: chaosagent

If the burn through had occurred further counterclockwise and outside the 90 degree arc,, could Challengers TPS have absorbed the heat from what was a very large solid-fuel blowtorch?


23 posted on 01/28/2016 10:44:57 AM PST by tanknetter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson