Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: other causes of the Challenger disaster?
Message-ID: <1988May28.214540.2014@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <247@ncar.ucar.edu>, <3330004@hpindda.HP.COM>
Date: Sat, 28 May 88 21:45:40 GMT

>... I don't remember the name of the scientist, and the article
>indicated that not many people took much stock in this person's opinions,
>nevertheless, he believed that wind sheer played a big part in the
>disaster.  He also postulated that the wind sheer was severe enough
>that the struts would have broken apart from the wind sheer even without
>having been weakened by the SRM exhaust leak.

That will be Ali Abutaha [I think that's the right spelling].  He came up
with a steady stream of unconventional theories about Challenger for a
little while.  Some of them were taken seriously enough to be investigated
at some length, with negative or inconclusive results.  Others have not
been pursued.  My impression is that there's a general consensus that his
structural-failure theory is not numerically plausible, although NASA *is*
being more cautious about high-altitude windshear these days.
-- 
"For perfect safety... sit on a fence|  Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
and watch the birds." --Wilbur Wright| {ihnp4,decvax,uunet!mnetor}!utzoo!henry