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Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: net.columbia
Subject: Re: Challenger SRBs
Message-ID: <6359@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 5-Feb-86 12:06:30 EST
Article-I.D.: utzoo.6359
Posted: Wed Feb  5 12:06:30 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 5-Feb-86 12:06:30 EST
References: <4270@mhuxd.UUCP> <958@ihuxx.UUCP>, <1956@peora.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 21

> > It's my belief that NASA Launch Operations will regret that they
> > intentionally destroyed the SRBs.  As I understand that situation,
> > there was only a POSSIBILITY that the SRBs could have fallen on
> > populated areas.  They surely would have burned for only a few
> > more seconds.  Would the parachute recovery mechanism have worked even
> > after the shuttle explosion?
> 
> It appeared from here that one of the SRBs was heading almost straight
> downward, under power, shortly before it was destroyed.

The story I hear is that the original message was correct, and NASA does
regret the destruction of the SRBs; in retrospect there was little danger
of them going anywhere untoward.  But the Range Safety people had only
seconds in which to make a decision, and I believe NASA has officially
stated that their (as it turns out) excessive caution was proper.

The recovery system would probably have worked, given that the noses of
the SRBs were probably the section least exposed to the blast.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry