PAULx

~ Tenet insanabile multos scribendi cacoethes

PAULx

Daily Archives: January 21, 2012

15 Days in January – Day 8

21 Saturday Jan 2012

Posted by Paul Kiser in Fiction, Government, History, Science, Space, Technology, US History

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Challenger, hot gases, joint leakage, NASA, O-rings, Solid Rocket Boosters, SRB, STS-51-L, STS-51B, STS-51L, STS-6, STS-7, STS-8

(NOTE: The following is a fictionalized account of the 15 days in January 1986 leading up to the Challenger Space Shuttle Disaster. The character’s account is fictional; however, the details of weather and Space Shuttle events are based on known historical facts.)

Titusville, Florida
Tuesday, January 21, 1986
High Temp: 64° F Low Temp: 45° F

Challenger rolls out to Launch Pad 39A

Today we are having another day of cool, but clear weather with the wind out of the north. Challenger (OV-099) is still being prepped for a Friday launch and I’m just grateful that the original launch date was pushed back because of Columbia’s flight delays. Hopefully, it will be warmer on Friday, which will make the launch more comfortable for everyone watching. 

Challenger STS-6, her maiden voyage

As I said yesterday, Challenger has given us many ‘challenges.’ The fact that OV-099 was not originally intended to fly may be part of the reason she has been sometimes reluctant to leave Earth. That said, despite her temperament, Challenger  has broken new ground for the program.

After her problematic maiden voyage the second flight was relatively trouble-free. Launched on June 18, 1983, Challenger STS-7 was the first mission with a planned landing at KSC, but that had to be waved off because of weather.

Challenger in lightning storm just prior to liftoff

Challenger’s third mission (STS-8) was supposed to be in July, but because a payload issue the launch was pushed back to August 30, 1983. After a spectacular lightning show just before launch, Challenger lifted off almost on time making history as the first nighttime launch of a Space Shuttle. This feat was complimented by the first nighttime landing when Challenger returned on September 5, 1983.

1984 was a great year for Challenger. OV-099’s fourth, fifth, and sixth missions gave us the first untethered ‘space walk,’ the first Orbiter landing at KSC, the successful recovery, repair, and redeployment of an orbiting satellite, the first time seven people were launched into space, and the first time two women were in space at the same time.

Bruce McCandless II became first human satellite on STS-41B

The seventh mission for Challenger, and her first of 1985, was unusual because it was the only mission where the Shuttle had been delivered to the launch pad and then had to be pulled back to the Vertical Assembly Building (VAB.) Concerns about the reliability of a satellite in the payload bay of Challenger forced NASA to cancel the mission.

After a two month delay Challenger’s new STS-51B mission was finally launched on April 29, 1985, with the European Space Lab – 3 in its payload bay. The mission was a success with the only issue with the flight occurring after the Solid Rocket Boosters (SRB) were recovered. The left SRB had evidence that it leaked hot gases through a joint area and two rubber o-rings that were designed to sealed the joint were damaged. One ring had 4mm of erosion and the other had 8mm of erosion.

This leakage presents two issues. The first is the potential loss of pressure if the leak is too major and the second is the danger of hot gases that might be directed toward the External Tank (ET), the Orbiter, or the other SRB, which might damage them. Fortunately, this was not an issue during this flight.

Despite the SRB hot gases leakage issue on her seventh mission, the biggest scare Challenger would give us was on her eighth mission. I’ll talk about that tomorrow. 

Other Pages of This Blog

  • About Paul Kiser
  • Common Core: Are You a Good Switch or a Bad Switch?
  • Familius Interruptus: Lessons of a DNA Shocker
  • Moffat County, Colorado: The Story of Two Families
  • Rules on Comments
  • Six Things The United States Must Do
  • Why We Are Here: A 65-Year Historical Perspective of the United States

Paul’s Recent Blogs

  • Janet Devlin vs. Janet Devlin
  • Colorado’s 17 Dying Counties
  • Timid Democrats in Power Haunts the United States of America
  • The Betelgeuse Summer Problem
  • Moffat County Coal: Why Ignorance is Not Bliss
  • Betelgeuse is NOT Collapsing, It’s Expanding [NOTE: THIS IS IN ERROR]
  • Betelgeuse: Schrödinger’s Star

Paul Kiser’s Tweets

  • To be clear,@SN11 did not crash, it exploded in mid-air and rained down debris over a wide area. The NWS has radar… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 1 week ago
  • @boulderpolice The new model in press conferences is to delay and deny there is information available. It opens the… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 2 weeks ago
  • @boulderpolice OMG. There was no purpose for a PC. No information was offered. NONE. It was a complete slap in the… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 2 weeks ago
  • @BrookeOz3 ...and you took the world's intelligence down by 50%. 3 weeks ago
  • @RalstonReports @JackieValley @meganmesserly I also believe that there is a looming issue of children not accounted… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 3 weeks ago

What’s Up

January 2012
S M T W T F S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031  
« Dec   Feb »

Follow Blog via Email

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 1,655 other subscribers

A WordPress.com Website.