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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!bellcore!decvax!linus!philabs!pwa-b!mmintl!franka
From: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams)
Newsgroups: net.columbia,net.space
Subject: Re: Did the Challenger wobble?
Message-ID: <1135@mmintl.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 3-Feb-86 21:26:02 EST
Article-I.D.: mmintl.1135
Posted: Mon Feb  3 21:26:02 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 9-Feb-86 05:23:16 EST
References: <437@mmm.UUCP> <439@mmm.UUCP>
Reply-To: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams)
Distribution: net
Organization: Multimate International, E. Hartford, CT
Lines: 22
Xref: watmath net.columbia:2150 net.space:5660
Summary: 


In article <439@mmm.UUCP> mrgofor@mmm.UUCP (Michael Ross) writes:
>* Using the fast scan on my VCR, I watched the whole flight in fast
>* motion. Just before the camera cut to the chase-plane's view, Challenger
>* seemed to be wobbling back and forth a little bit. It's too slow to 
>* notice at normal speed - but I thought it was fairly easy to see
>* at the faster speed. You people out there who have it on tape - try
>* it and see. Is it my imagination? Could it hold a clue?
>
>Several people mailed me responses asking if it couldn't have been
>the camera wobbling. I obviously did not speak clearly the first time.
>I am an amateur photographer, and I know about camera shake - that wasn't
>what I saw. The wobbling was more like skewing (what do they call it when
>the rear tries to overtake the front - yaw? pitch?) Anyway, it looked
>as if it started to steer to the left, then the guidance system compensated
>and it steered to the right, then back to the left, etc., as if the pilot
>were driving a car and turning the steering wheel back and forth.

Have you (or anyone) compared this with a successful shuttle launch?  This
may be just the normal operation of the guidance system.

Frank Adams                           ihpn4!philabs!pwa-b!mmintl!franka
Multimate International    52 Oakland Ave North    E. Hartford, CT 06108