Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!amdcad!ames!think!bloom-beacon!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!njin!princeton!phoenix!elturner
From: elturner@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Edwin L Turner)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Discovery's launch: Am I imagining things?
Message-ID: <3811@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 29 Sep 88 21:56:46 GMT
References: <1104@cfa237.cfa250.harvard.edu>
Reply-To: elturner@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Edwin L Turner)
Organization: Princeton University, NJ
Lines: 36


>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 taped the launch and have rewatched it and have compared it to a tape of
the Challenger accident.  The apparent flame plume in this morning's
launch looked fairly similar to the O-ring burn through in the Challenger
launch.  I would modify the description you give above only in that the
position of the plume seemed somewhat less stable; it appeared to move
around considerably and flicker in brightness.

It may well be that we are all misinterpreting what we saw.  Perhaps it was
some minor and/or entirely normal event.  All may be well, but I think that
there is at least a moderate probability that, after looking at the many
available camera angles and inspecting the recovered SRB's, NASA will
announce that this morning's launch only narrowly escaped disaster.
If there was another O-ring burn through, it will surely AT LEAST mean
another major delay in the shuttle program.

Ed Turner			"Does one really have to fret
phoenix!elturner		 About enlightenment?
				 No matter what road I travel,
				 I'm going home."
or
elturner@phoenix.Princeton.EDU