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From: jonkatz@gn.ecn.purdue.edu (Jonathan W. Katz)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Fire near tail of shuttle after landings.
Message-ID: <1991Apr12.034927.25257@gn.ecn.purdue.edu>
Date: 12 Apr 91 03:49:27 GMT
References: <1991Apr11.223534.12896@pandora.matrox.com> <1076@hrshcx.csd.harris.com>
Organization: Purdue University Engineering Computer Network
Lines: 19

In article <1076@hrshcx.csd.harris.com> wdh@hrshcx.csd.harris.com (W. David Higgins) writes:
>In article <1991Apr11.223534.12896@pandora.matrox.com> hobrien@pluton.matrox.com (Hugh O'Brien) writes:
>.     Sometime in 1985 I remember seeing a shuttle landing on TV where
>. there was a clean flame emanating from near the base of the tail 
>. after the orbiter had come to a stop.
>.
>.    What gives?  Did some sort of gas/hydraulic line rupture?  How come
>. nothing like this was ever mentioned in the layman press?
>.
>	Jeez, you should have asked.  It's the APU exhaust plume.  You
>probably saw an infrared image from a '85 night landing.  The plume is very
>evident then.  Daytime it is harder to see.


Actually, what he saw back in '85 (?) was an actual fire in the Columbia
engine room that did a lot of damage.

Jonathan W. Katz
Purdue University