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I was one of the accident investigators. NASA knew there were serious problems but launched anyway.
Gen. Chuck Yeager twitter ^ | January 28, 2019 | Gen Chuck Yeager

Posted on 01/28/2019 1:31:02 PM PST by SMGFan

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To: SMGFan

It looked like an explosion but actually wasn’t. The center tank disentegrated. What looks like an explosion is the fuel escaping at that high velocity and altitude. The strain completely pulled the shuttle apart and thw crew cabin was blown clean away. The astronauts were likely alive all the way down.


41 posted on 01/28/2019 2:18:09 PM PST by FlipWilson
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To: Moonman62

I thought it used to be a single O-ring and then they went to 3 to over-engineer it.

No?


42 posted on 01/28/2019 2:21:56 PM PST by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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To: SMGFan

The O rings were so well known as an issue, when the USAF built a Shuttle launch facility at VAndyland, they had added jet engines to the tower infrastructure to heat the SRBs prior to launch.

Of course, with this loss, there was no longer any ‘spare’ shuttles for military launches from the Air Force Base

https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/the-space-shuttle-s-military-launch-complex-in-californ-1710303170

https://spaceflightnow.com/2016/02/08/astronaut-interview-30-years-after-the-hopes-of-a-west-coast-space-shuttle/.


43 posted on 01/28/2019 2:22:17 PM PST by ASOC (Having humility really means one is rarely humiliated)
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To: FlipWilson
It looked like an explosion but actually wasn’t. The center tank disentegrated. What looks like an explosion is the fuel escaping at that high velocity and altitude. The strain completely pulled the shuttle apart and thw crew cabin was blown clean away. The astronauts were likely alive all the way down.

Kind of a matter of definition. Later finite-element analysis indicated that the shuttle heat shield experienced (briefly) a force of five million pounds from the expanding gas cloud. That was way more than the shuttle had been designed to withstand; its weight was something like 110 thousand pounds (not counting payload bay contents), so 5 million pounds of thrust would have imparted an acceleration of like 45Gs.

It wasn't a brissant explosion, as you would have with nitroglycerine, but LH2 and LOX burn very fast when combined.

44 posted on 01/28/2019 2:26:12 PM PST by Steely Tom ([Seth Rich] == [the Democrat's John Dean])
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To: Vermont Lt

Doesn’t matter some ass said it’s Ronald Reagan’s fault.


45 posted on 01/28/2019 2:26:19 PM PST by Equine1952 (Get yourself a ticket on a common mans train of thought)
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To: Equine1952
The good feelings experienced by the American people during Reagan's first term were galling to the Democrats and the MSM, which hated him nearly as much as they now hate PDJT.

I'm convinced that part of the reason for the frantic and maniacal response of the MSM-Democrats to the Trump presidency is they didn't want a repeat of the patriotic glow that ensued after Reagan kicked loser Carter out of the White House, and proceeded to show Americans what it was like to be Americans for the first time in the lives of many baby boomers.

This had to be avoided in Trump's case, at all costs.

46 posted on 01/28/2019 2:31:41 PM PST by Steely Tom ([Seth Rich] == [the Democrat's John Dean])
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To: SMGFan

The fraction of Rocket Scientists at NASA has been on the decline for decades......


47 posted on 01/28/2019 2:31:59 PM PST by Paladin2
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Feynman examined other shuttle subsystems, and found problems elsewhere as well. His conclusion was that management’s wishful thinking about the true reliability of shuttle systems meant that, if it hadn’t been a catastrophic failure of the O-rings, something else would have failed eventually.

http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/51-l/docs/rogers-commission/Appendix-F.txt


48 posted on 01/28/2019 2:32:49 PM PST by PapaBear3625 ("Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities." -- Voltaire)
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To: SMGFan

It was ‘86...


49 posted on 01/28/2019 2:35:47 PM PST by jagusafr
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To: jagusafr

95 year old guy using twitter. No doubt Someone might have told him his error.


50 posted on 01/28/2019 2:39:51 PM PST by SMGFan
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To: Buckeye McFrog

Promising to nominate a woman to SCOTUS, taking a Democrat deal on border security, caving to MADD to use Federal highway money to blackmail states, and pulling the Marines out of Lebanon (which encouraged the OBL types to do more terrorism); destroying the US Commercial Fishing Industry - particularity the tuna, bottom fish, cod, and salmon Industries.


51 posted on 01/28/2019 3:00:22 PM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
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To: SaveFerris

The original was two o-rings, the redesign was three. There were other changes in the redesign, and I’d say the redesign was excellent and would probably be extremely unlikely to fail.

Browse through this PDF to see the redesign.

https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/553082main_Shuttle_Lessons_Learned_Buzzard.pdf


52 posted on 01/28/2019 3:16:40 PM PST by Moonman62 (Facts are racist.)
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To: Moonman62

Ah, O.K.


53 posted on 01/28/2019 3:17:07 PM PST by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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To: SMGFan

Remember that tragic day well.

I was attending COMSEC school, NS Mayport, FL


54 posted on 01/28/2019 3:19:02 PM PST by airdalechief
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To: SMGFan

Duh


55 posted on 01/28/2019 3:26:22 PM PST by Fledermaus (Tagline For Lease)
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To: SaveFerris
As I recall, two Morton Thiokol engineers were arguing against a launch as it was too cold outside.

You don't quite recall correctly.

Not one single Morton Thiokol engineer would approve the launch.

Read that line again.

The company could not find an engineer, any engineer, to approve the launch.

A non-technical manager signed off on it.

56 posted on 01/28/2019 3:27:19 PM PST by null and void (Build the wall, or don't get paid at all.)
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To: ASOC

I was assigned to both cancelled programs in the Los Angeles AFB
System Program Office SPOs. MOL and AF shuttle. Both jobs were planning SLC 6 construction.


57 posted on 01/28/2019 3:28:26 PM PST by larryjohnson (FReepersonaltrainer)
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To: null and void

I only heard of the two but I’m sure that’s probably correct.

[ A non-technical manager signed off on it. ]

That part I did know.


58 posted on 01/28/2019 3:29:55 PM PST by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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To: SMGFan

As an 11th grader at the time, I attended a special dinner maybe a month before the flight with Christine (teacher) and several of the other astronauts for that trip. I was one of 3 who had won a special school contest to design the patch they wore for their shuttle trip. Of course, it was super exciting meeting them and of course we all were thrilled to watch the day it went up. Just sitting there watching as the shuttle blew up after having met her and the others in person...well no words.


59 posted on 01/28/2019 3:43:50 PM PST by terart
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To: SaveFerris; Red Badger
I was at work.

One of our I/T support people told me (erroneously) the shuttle had blown up on the pad.

At lunch, everyone was staring at the video at a downtown Macy’s store on the TV’s.

I was a Deputy Missile Combat Crew Member at Grand Forks AFB. On that day I was driving out to C-0 (one of the alternate command posts , ACP) Launch Control Facility to complete my training to be on a ACP crew.

It was snowing and I entered the facility and got out of my vehicle the Facility Manager told me the Shuttle had blown up. I walked into the building topside and saw on the TV in the lounge the pieces of the Shuttle raining down into the ocean (real time, not replay).

I almost got jacked-up by the Flight Security Controller as I stood and stared at the TV rather than showing my ID and checking in.

60 posted on 01/28/2019 3:58:37 PM PST by OldMissileer (Atlas, Titan, Minuteman, PK. Winners of the Cold War)
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