Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!ukc!stl!stc!axion!sjeyasin
From: sjeyasin@zaphod.axion.bt.co.uk (swaraj jeyasingh)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: SRB floatation question
Message-ID: <757@zaphod.axion.bt.co.uk>
Date: 15 Dec 88 13:24:27 GMT
References: <22000010@m.cs.uiuc.edu>
Sender: news@axion.bt.co.uk
Reply-To: sjeyasin@zaphod.axion.bt.co.uk
Lines: 32

From article <22000010@m.cs.uiuc.edu>, by zweig@m.cs.uiuc.edu:
> 
> Does anyone know offhand:
> 
> a) How far downrange do the SRB's hit the Atlantic, and
> 
> b) How deep is the water there, and
> 
> c) How do they get the things to float back up? Is it something the
>    divers have to go down and hook on or is it some system inside the
>    boosters themselves?
> 

The only thing I am sure of is that after splash-down the SRBs end up floating
vertically as they are half filled with sea-water (the rest being air
presumably). Once they are secured to the recovery vessel(USS Liberty Bell is
one I think) the rest of the sea water is pumped out so that they float
horizontally for towing back. Exactly how the securing is done I don't know.
Frogmen ? Canadarm (!) or equivalent ?   Can't say more than that without
recourse to books.

BTW, I've been reading the net for a while and find it stimulating
and informative. I can understand the need for the occasional outburst of
nationalistic sentiment (we in the UK haven't got too much to brag about).
But we can do without the VIVE LE FRANCE attitude and still retain some
sense of national pride.


Swaraj Jeyasingh
British Telecom Research Labs
Ipswich
UK