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From: paul@axiom.UUCP (Paul O`Shaughnessy)
Newsgroups: net.space,net.columbia
Subject: re: Shuttle Ditching
Message-ID: <172@axiom.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 26-Feb-86 12:42:40 EST
Article-I.D.: axiom.172
Posted: Wed Feb 26 12:42:40 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 28-Feb-86 22:16:33 EST
References: <573@ssc-vax.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: Axiom Technology, Newton MA
Lines: 31
Xref: watmath net.space:6085 net.columbia:2510

NASA and its contractors have consistently maintained that a ditching
of the shuttle during the SRB boost phase of the flight is impossible
to perform survivably.  The most believable reasons which I have heard
on the net and in the media go something like this:

Very early in the launch, detatching and landing the shuttle is impossible
simply because there is insufficient altitiude.  By the time there is 
sufficient altitude for anything other that a nosedive, the spacecraft is
travelling at several times the speed of sound through atmosphere which
is still quite dense.  If the shuttle were to detach from the fuel tank
at this point, it would not veer away gracefully as we might imagine, but
would flip over backwards and its wings (at least) would be torn up by the
excessive aerodynamic force.  I don't think that such a detatchment is 
possible until the spacecraft is quite high, which is after the SRB's
are jettisoned.

I've also read that jettisoning the SRB's while they're still burning 
full force is near impossible because their exhaust would explode the 
fuel tank or frazzle the shuttle as they raced ahead of the spacecraft.
Is this true?  I certainly don't trust everything I read or hear, and
I post this not as truth but as a concentrate of recent publications.
Confirmations or corrections are appreciated.  Also, could any of these
ditching modes be made safe?

------------

Paul O'Shaughnessy
Axiom Technology Corp.
Newton, Massachusetts

'Home of the AT100'