Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!purdue!bu.edu!xylogics!transfer!lectroid!jjmhome!cpoint!frog!john
From: john@frog.UUCP (John Woods)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Blowing up the Shuttle
Message-ID: <13701@frog.UUCP>
Date: 9 Apr 90 20:33:00 GMT
References: <10556.1574.forumexp@mts.rpi.edu> <1990Apr5.035158.23244@utzoo.uucp> <10884@portia.Stanford.EDU>
Organization: Misanthropes-R-Us
Lines: 20

In article <10884@portia.Stanford.EDU>, mdbomber@portia.Stanford.EDU (Matt Bartley) writes:
> I thought after the explosion the SRB`s went flying away like bottle rockets.
> When I first saw what happened I thought they were burning pieces of the
> shuttle, but I later saw they were the engines.  Doesn't sound like
> the destruct worked there.

It took the RSO some time to blow up the SRBs  (110.250 seconds after launch,
36 seconds after the explosion).  I think there was some hope that they'd
recover the SRBs whole, but the left SRB was headed toward a populated area.

> What first touched off the breakup?

T+72.497	SSME roll gimbal rates 5deg/sec
T+72.525	Vehicle max +Y lateral acceleration (+.227g)

Now, imagine being hit under the chin with a GREAT, BIG SLEDGEHAMMER being
driven at Mach 3.  You'd go to pieces, too ;-).
-- 
John Woods, Charles River Data Systems, Framingham MA, (508) 626-1101
...!decvax!frog!john, john@frog.UUCP, ...!mit-eddie!jfw, jfw@eddie.mit.edu