Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!uwvax!oddjob!ncar!scdpyr.ucar.edu!era
From: era@scdpyr.ucar.edu (Ed Arnold)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: other causes of the Challenger disaster?
Message-ID: <247@ncar.ucar.edu>
Date: 25 May 88 17:00:51 GMT
Sender: news@ncar.ucar.edu
Reply-To: era@scdpyr.ucar.edu (Ed Arnold)
Organization: Scientific Computing Division/NCAR, Boulder CO
Lines: 21

Having read the McConnell book, I kind of assumed the "real" causes
of the disaster had been identified.  However, I didn't read the
dissenting Feynman opinion.  Anyway, the May 1988 issue of
_Defense Science_ (a miserable rag, perhaps, but don't we all
ogle the Enquirer in the supermarket?  :-) ) printed an
article entitled "[New analysis indicates other causes for]
The Challenger Disaster".  This claims that the real cause of the
disaster was not a leaking o-ring per se, but enormous forces
caused by the navigation system correcting sidethrust caused by
a leak that was REALLY due to assembling a round booster mid-section
with an out-of-round lower section.

Does anyone out there have any opinions about this point of view?

If you aren't familiar with this point of view, I can send you a
copy of the article if you don't have access to it ... USnail a
SASE to the address below.
--------
Ed Arnold * NCAR (Nat'l Center for Atmospheric Research) * Mesa Lab
PO Box 3000 * Boulder, CO  80307-3000 * 303-497-1253
era@ncar.ucar.edu (128.117.64.4) * {ames,gatech,noao,...}!ncar!era