Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Weekly World News publishes Challenger tape transcript
Message-ID: <1991Jan27.033632.23662@zoo.toronto.edu>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <38406@cup.portal.com> <9947@orca.wv.tek.com> <73191734@bfmny0.BFM.COM> <20352@hydra.gatech.EDU>
Date: Sun, 27 Jan 1991 03:36:32 GMT

In article <20352@hydra.gatech.EDU> gt6337a@prism.gatech.EDU (Niel M. Bornstein) writes:
>I'm no psychologist (though I do have a BS in Applied Psychology), but this
>reads to me more like a movie script than an actual transcript.  I am
>extremely doubtful about the validity of this 'transcript'.

Me too.  To put it bluntly, it's all wrong.  For one thing, there *is* no
"ditch procedure" for an orbiter:  ditching one is 100% fatal, because the
orbiter is too fragile to survive.  (I have seen the flight plan for STS-1,
which had ejection seats for Young and Crippen, and the procedures for all
situations leading to water impact end in "EJECT".)  For another, the
characters are obviously Hollywood actors, not test pilots and other trained
astronauts.  Even discounting extensive training that emphasizes coping 
pragmatically with emergencies rather than shouting tearjerking sentiments
as death approaches, the fact is that even untrained people mostly react
much more calmly and practically to such situations than Hollywood thinks.
-- 
If the Space Shuttle was the answer,   | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
what was the question?                 |  henry@zoo.toronto.edu   utzoo!henry