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Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re: Future of the Space Program
Message-ID: <6340@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 30-Jan-86 16:52:55 EST
Article-I.D.: utzoo.6340
Posted: Thu Jan 30 16:52:55 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 30-Jan-86 16:52:55 EST
References: <12178969201.19.DENNETT@SRI-NIC.ARPA>, <429@umich.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 15

> There are no ejection seats; reasons given: ...
> ... (3) not viable, orbiter speed at ejection and/or
> magnitude of emergency would preclude successful deployment.

If you listen to recordings of one of the early test flights, when the
pilot and copilot did have ejection seats, quite early in the mission you'll
hear a comment "negative seats".  That means the shuttle has passed Mach 3
and the ejection seats are no longer considered useful.  I'm not sure just
how fast Challenger was moving when it blew, but it was at least close to
Mach 3 based on the position-and-velocity calls earlier.  And even a fully
automatic ejection system probably wouldn't have helped, considering how
quickly it happened.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry