Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!nrl-cmf!ukma!gatech!rutgers!bellcore!ka9q.bellcore.com!karn
From: karn@ka9q.bellcore.com (Phil Karn)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: SRB question
Message-ID: <13455@bellcore.bellcore.com>
Date: 15 Jan 89 20:21:53 GMT
References: <20600@ames.arc.nasa.gov> <7089@csli.STANFORD.EDU> <1989Jan15.051404.15350@utzoo.uucp>
Sender: news@bellcore.bellcore.com
Reply-To: karn@ka9q.bellcore.com (Phil Karn)
Organization: Secular Humanists for No-Code
Lines: 13

>I've been wondering about what would happen if, when launched, one of
>the SRB's on the shuttle fires, say, a second before the other one
>does.

The chances of this are *extremely* remote. It is more likely that
one SRB simply wouldn't ignite at all, but the chances of this are also
pretty small considering the redundancy and overdesign in the SRB
ignition system.

Small assymetries in thrust between the SRBs can and do occur, mainly due
to temperature variations. The orbiter can handle these.

Phil