Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!tikal!phred!petej
From: petej@phred.UUCP (Pete Jarvis)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Re: Orbiter/SRB separation
Message-ID: <2259@phred.UUCP>
Date: 20 Jun 88 14:30:17 GMT
References: <1869@bigtex.uucp> <3330005@hpindda.HP.COM>
Reply-To: petej@phred.UUCP (Pete Jarvis)
Organization: <3330005@hpindda.HP.COM>o
Lines: 18

In article <3330005@hpindda.HP.COM> mears@hpindda.HP.COM (David B. Mears) writes:
>Wait a minute.  I don't recall seeing anywhere anything published which
>said that the exhaust plume directly caused the explosion of the ET.  Where
>did you this printed?  It was always my understanding that the plume caused
>the lower strut to weaken and break, thus causing the SRB to pivot into the
>ET, causing the tanks to rupture, causing the H and O to combine and burn in
>the fireball seen on TV (though not exactly an explosion).  Or are we saying
>the same thing only with more or less detail?
>
David: The plume did cause the lower strut to weaken and break, but at the
same time it also burned through the ET causing it to rupture and burn 
hydrogen rapidly out the bottom. This caused an instantaneous 20-G force
ramming the top of the H tank into the bottom of the Oxygen tank. At the same
time, the top of the SRB pivoted into the inter-tank area of the ET when the
strut broke. I have the detailed and commented video tapes that discuss this
when they were shown during the Rogers Commission proceedings.

Peter Jarvis........Physio-Control, Redmond, Washington