Monday, Feb. 3 1986
Campus/Area
University Daily Kansan
9
Solid rockets malfunction doomed shuttle from the moment of blastoff, officials say
United Press International
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Shuttle crews practice techniques to survive many emergencies during their prenecture launches but Challenger's crew was doomed from the instant the spacepsaces's solid rockets ignited for blastoff last Tuesday.
Of all the failure scenarios thought possible with the space shuttle, problems with the ship's two powerhouse solid rockets are among the most unforgiving and, many astronauts say, the most deadly.
"Let me put it this way, the solid rockets have to work," flight director Tommy Holloway said after Challenger's July 29 engine shutdown five minutes and 45 seconds after launch.
Film released Saturday by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration shows a tongue of flame emerging from near the base of Challenger's right-side solid rocket
The flame apparently came from a joint between two fuel segments, allowing 5,900-degree fire to spew out.
and washing over the rear of the ship's giant external fuel tank.
The official NASA review board has not drawn any conclusions about the accident, but experts think the heat from the flame either burned through the tank to detonate its explosive fuel or heated its walls enough to raise internal pressures to a point that resulted in rupture, setting off a titanic explosion.
Sources said unreleased NASA films of the launch indicated the problem may have developed at the moment the rockets were fired at liftoff and worsened as the flight progressed.
In any case, Challenger's crew never had a chance.
Astronaut Robert Overmyer, a veteran shuttle commander, said in an interview after Challenger's July 29 mission that it would be difficult, if not impossible, in event of an
emergency to get away from the booster when they were firing.
"If one has a big burn through and the auto (steering) system can't keep you going straight you can try all sorts of things but there's no way to shut off an SRB." he said.
The solid rocket boosters, SRB's, fire for about two minutes to provide the initial push toward orbit. In emergencies, they can be shut down early only by sending radio destruct commands to fire explosives that open the casing and neutralize thrust.
The boosters are attached to the shuttle's external tank with a ball and socket assembly on the forward end and struts at the rear. When the rocket's fuel is exhausted, connecting pins are fractured with small explosives and two gangs of small solid rockets fire to push the casings away from the tank.
But while they are still firing, the ball and socket assembly could prevent the crew from separating the rockets early.
Pope unharmed by firecracker in India
The Associated Press
NEW DELHI, India — Police arrested a man they said appeared deranged after he tossed a noisy but harmless firecracker at the end of a Mass celebrated by Pope John Paul II yesterday.
The firecracker raised a plume of smoke about 40 yards from John Paul, who was leaving Indira Gandhi Stadium after saying Mass before about 25,000 people. It burned the carpet, but hurt no one.
Already tight security was increased for John Paul's 10-day tour of 14 cities, and police in the next city on the tour, Ranchi, rounded up about
100 people considered potential troublemakers.
Before the disturbance, John Paul applauded efforts by Christians and others to relieve the misery of India's millions of poor.
Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro said the pontiff heard the firecracker's loud bang but gave no sign of concern.
But a Vatican official, who asked not to be named, said several members of the papal entourage were concerned about the blast. The 65-year-old pontiff has survived two assassination attempts.
POLice said the man, Dominique Ouseph, was charged with mischief
"It appears he was of unsound mind," said Deputy Police Commissioner Umesh Kumar Katna. "He said he did it just to draw the pope's attention."
and violation of the explosive substances act.
Katna said Ouseph was carrying an unspecified document bearing President Reagan's name and White House address. He said Ouseph was about 40 and a Roman Catholic from southern Kerala.
Police and security officials first said the man threw the firecracker to welcome John Paul and denied he was arrested. They did not explain the change.
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Services held for shuttle crew
From Kansan wires
With prayers and tears, the nation yesterday remembered the lost crew of space shuttle Challenger in church services and memorial services where the astronauts grew up, went to school or got married.
The lost crew members were: Gregory Jarvis, Christa McAuliffe, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Francis Scobee and Michael Smith.
In Beaufort, N.C. Smith's picture was fastened to one of seven flag poles at the city limits. A sign on the pole read, "He lived well, laughed often, and loved everything. He accomplished his task, and left this world a better place than he found it."
About 350 people jammed the Wesley United Methodist Church in Lake City, S.C., for a memorial service for McNair. Hundreds more stood outside the red brick church listening to loudspeakers.
In Christa McAuiliffe's hometown, Concord, N.H., third-grader Sky Courtney, wrote of McAuiliffe, "She was brave to go that far . . . I feel that she was a part of me . . . Even that I did not meat her I feel misser-boll."
"McNair was determined to be upward bound and heaven bound," the Rev. Jesse Jackson prayed." He took the wings of the morning and now his soul is at rest with thee."
In Kaiha-Kona, Hawaii, over 300 people attended a memorial Mass at St. Michael's Catholic Church for Onikura, a Buddhist. It was the last of four services at the church, which was full each time.
"For a period of a week, the United States was drawn together in one family," said the Rev. Patrick Bergin. "At that time, there was no man or woman, there was no white or black, no Jew nor Gentile, no Christian or Buddhist, we're simply all in the family of man."
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Children had watched television sets in every Concord classroom as shuttle's rockets roared to life Tuesday and then exploded in a spectacular fireball over Cape Canaveral, killing McAuliffe and her six companions.
"We pray that you may receive the souls of these your servants," Mayor Edward Koch said as several hundred New Yorkers looked on.
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Teachers throughout McAuliffe's hometown for months had fueled their pupils' excitement with the flight of the nation's first teacher in space.
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In New York, howitzers shot a seven-gun salute beneath chilly gray skies in Central Park to honor the seven dead astronauts.
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The mayor intoned the names of the astronauts and said they "died in the service of their country and the service of all mankind. Their memory will be with us always."
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