Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ncar!ames!hc!lanl!unm-la!cs293ad
From: cs293ad@unm-la.UUCP (Hugh Hazelrigg)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Discovery's launch: Am I imagining things?
Keywords: flame plume
Message-ID: <818@unm-la.UUCP>
Date: 30 Sep 88 04:58:26 GMT
References: <1104@cfa237.cfa250.harvard.edu> <3811@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Reply-To: cs293ad@unm-la.UUCP (Hugh Hazelrigg)
Distribution: na
Organization: Univ. of New Mexico at Los Alamos
Lines: 30

In article <3811@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> elturner@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Edwin L Turner) writes:
>
>>HOORAY! Discovery's in orbit at last. Phew.
>>
>>BUT....  At about 80 to 90 seconds into the flight, I and several
>>friends independently thought we saw flame coming out of the right hand
>>(no, right on the TV screen, so I guess that must mean its really the
>>"left hand") SRB at the case-to-nozzle joint (where the cylindrical
>>booster starts to flare toward the bottom). Did anyone else see this?
>>The commentators didnt mention it. I hope I'm wrong.
>>
>>
>>Jonathan McDowell
>
>I greatly fear that you are not wrong.  I and at least two other
>friends all watching it separately here in Princeton noticed the same thing.

I saw it too.  In spite of the news media's description of the event as
"picture perfect", the picture I saw was heart-stopping.  After watching
the replays of the ill-fated last mission so many times that I became
inured to the horrible reality of the loss of life and the setback to
the program, I became sensitized to the implications of the telephoto
image broadcast to our TV screens.  I am sure that I saw something that
looked very much like the flame plume which is blamed for the Challenger's
demise.

I shall not be surprised when NASA announces another major delay in the
program.

hugh