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Press and Sun-Bulletin from Binghamton, New York • 4

Location:
Binghamton, New York
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4
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

4A Press Sun-Bulletin Friday, January 31, 1986 DISASTER spac hlittie's external tank is investigated; x7; 5sV Vi A 1 i I 1 1 Mr SPACE CENTER, Houston (AP) External tank No. 26 was built, tested, shipped and installed just like all the earlier ones, but it exploded after only 73 seconds of flight and pulverized space shuttle Challenger and its crew of seven. Slow-motion films of Challenger's launch last Tuesday show the explosion rising near the top of the tank and growing as a violent white bloom until the entire tank and spacecraft are fragmented in a cloud of heat and pressure. The explosion was the result of one of the most powerful chemical combinations known pure oxygen and hydrogen. It is this energy, released in what chemists call "a controlled explosion," that makes the shuttles go.

Each shuttle launch burns more than 1.5 million pounds of oxygen and hydrogen. The chemicals are sparked by an igniter to react in a carefully directed way and produce 1.1 million pounds of thrusting energy to drive the shuttle into space. On Challenger, the explosion was not controlled. Tons of super-cold hydrogen and oxygen somehow mixed and became a very powerful bomb. It was the job of the external tank to both provide these chemicals in the gigantic gulps required by Challenger's engines, and at the same time prevent any out-ofcontrol mixing.

The 15-story-tall external tank is the least-graceful looking part of the whole space shuttle stack. It's covered with orange foam. The gleaming white spacecraft was attached to the tank at three points and the tank actually bore the weight of the spacecraft. In turn, the tank was attached to two solid rocket boosters which were anchored to the launch pad and supported the whole structure. The tank, loaded with its rocket propellant, was the heavyweight of the four shuttle components at more than 800 tons.

It also is the only one of the components that was not reused. About 8V2 minutes into a normal flight, the empty tank is dumped into the ocean. The tank is made of aluminum covered with an orange insulation. Inside, there are two separate 1 tanks, one for the hydrogen and one for the oxygen. These are all supported by beams and struts amidst a maze of pipes, valves and vents.

Martin Marietta Aerospace, the contractor that built external tank No. 26, refused to discuss its history, but NASA officials said it was subjected to the same tests as tanks that had been used on 24 previous shuttle launches. Engineers designed the tank to be very tough, but No. 26 was not as tough as some of the first tanks built for the shuttle. After the first seven tanks, including one which never was used, NASA ordered the tanks to be lightened.

Engineers removed some internal struts, baffles and supports. The space agency also decided not to paint the tanks, as was done early in this program. The redesign saved 10,000 pounds, including 1,000 pounds of paint. This enabled the shuttle to carry more weight, but some engineers worry that it might also have reduced the safety of the tanks. "I think that trying to design this lightweight structure may have been what did us in," said Dave Pendley, a retired NASA safety engineer.

The tank can withstand any penetration force that it would encounter during a typical launch. Tiles from the orbiter skin or small pieces of metal would be unlikely to penetrate the external skin of the tank, even at the high speeds of a shuttle launch. Even if the external skin was pierced, the volatile oxygen and hydrogen would still be protected by the internal, individual pressure tanks. ill rn if lili 72 I Jf if If i It ft it Nation's children build memorial with pennies Engineers inspect the inside of a external tank similar to Poignant words AP PHOTO one that exploded during space shuttle Challenger's liftoff Tuesday. tell of tragedy The Associated Press Their words tell the story.

"I'm going to watch the astronauts and as long as they're not scared, I'm not going to be," schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe said before she flew in the space shuttle Challenger. "I feel, probably, safer doing something like that than driving around the New York streets." "Dick (Scobee) said once that some day we would lose someone," said Mary Ann Rogers, a neighbor in Houston. "His wife said that ev-erytime we go up, there is a sense of apprehension." Scobee, 46, was the Challenger commander. "All right. All right.

Go, baby, go," NASA technicians yelled as they watched the Challenger lift off from Cape Canaveral, Fla. "Go, Christa!" read the banner displayed by third-grade classmates of Scott McAuliffe, Christa's 9-year-old son who was at Cape Canaveral with her daughter, Caroline, 6, and husband, Steve. "Roger, go at throttle up," were the last public words of Scobee, acknowledging to Mission Control that the shuttle was operating at full power. "Flight controllers are looking very carefully at the situation," said Mission Control commentator Steve Nesbitt following the explosion, which occurred 74 seconds after liftoff. "Obviously a major malfunction.

We have no downlink." "Oh, my God, no," said first lady Nancy Reagan, watching the fire: ball on television at the White House. "They're dead. They're dead," cried Lynette Young, watching the being conducted in a normal way today," he said. Classes were 25 minutes and informal in the school where McAuliffe taught from 1982 until last July when she was selected to be the first private citizen in space. Clusters of students drifted in and out of the building.

Many stopped to read the poem, which McAuliffe was carrying with her on the space shuttle. Some held friends' hands. Others cried. "The staff is really feeling down about this," Foley said, adding that he can't envision things returning to normal, but "it will come." Psychologists were available for those who asked, Foley said. Flowers and over 100 telegrams of con 66 percent of the women agree.

"If it benefits man, what the hell," said James Whitman, 51, a Los Angeles painter. "Maybe they'll find another Earth out there." "If we just give up and quit then those astronauts would have died in vain," says Debbie Fleetwood, 33, an elementary school teacher in Cambridge, Md. Three-fourths (73 percent) say future flights should include civilians, while 21 percent say they should be limited to military and space agency personnel. The rest had no opinion. The response was consistent among both sexes and all age, education and geographic groups.

56 percent say they'd decline an offer to fly on the shuttle, but camera angle that would show someone survived, to see if anything was left," secretary Julie Matthews said. In the office of Rep. Bill Nelson, "There was really just dead silence. Frankly no one said a said David Dickerson, the press secretary. Nelson flew on the previous shuttle mission.

President Reagan and top aides stood in "stunned silence" and watched replays of the explosion. "I just can't get out of my mind her husband, her children, as well as the families of the others on board," Reagan said. "Mike Smith, the pilot, was my 'mother hen' the first month that I trained," said Sen. Jake Garn, R-Utah. "I don't know of any time when I was more shocked or moved since my first wife was killed." it I 1 St QD J.

McAuliffe's school endures By The Associated Press Kids are collecting pennies and dollars to build a replacement for Space Shuttle Challenger, but NASA says it can't promise that it can spend the money that way. Students in Bath are collecting pennies for a new shuttle. Charlotte Gregory, superintendent of the Bath Central School District, said the "Pennies for Space-Rebuild The Spirit" program started Wednesday. She's received calls from schools in California, Virginia and Pennsylvania asking to be included. "We were thinking what can we do to uplift the spirits," Gregory said yesterday.

In Gillette, Missy McPhil-lips, 9, and her brother, John, 10, suggested the nation's school children each contribute SI to NASA to replace the shuttle. Their mother, Karen McPhillips, said yesterday that some children felt better after making a donation. One classmate of Missy's who was extremely upset by the accident contributed $5, AP PHOTO 11 -v "and she was real excited, they could see a change," she said. "Maybe all these kids throughout the United States will feel better if thev can contribute tn this fund." Richard P. MacLeod, executive director of the United States Space Foundation in Colorado Springs, said the ill-fated Challenger cost $1.6 billion, although a later shuttle, Atlantis, cost $1.2 billion.

"We've got seven (telephone) lines and they have been ringing constantly," said MacLeod, whose foundation announced its own fund-raising campaign for a new shuttle on Wednesday. In Grants Pass, 13-year-old Tammy Quinn set up a Kids for Space fund, and her father and his friends pledged to match contributions up to $1,200. Address of the Space Shuttle Children's Fund is: American Secu- rifti HanU. Tlnv H1 Wadiinotnn D.C. 20055.

For the Space Foundation fund: Space Shuttle Fund, P.O. Box 51-L, Colorado Springs, Colo. 80901. For the NASA fund: NASA. At- tentiomBF, Washington, D.C, 20546 For Kids for Space: Kids for Space, Box 771, Grants Pass, 97526.

For Pennies for Space: Hav-erling High School, Ellas Avenue, 14810. McAuliffes express their thanks CONCORD, N.H. (AP) The husband and children of Christa McAuliffe expressed thanks yesterday for the wave of sympathy which followed her death aboard the space shuttle Challenger. "My children and I are very aware of the tremendous outpouring of grief and support across America," Steven McAuliffe said in a statement delivered by a partner in McAuliffe's Concoffiw firm. "We wish to thank you all and hope you can understand our need for these private moments.

"We have all lost Christa. We thank you for respecting our privacy and for sharing our grief. "We wish we could comfort all of you as you have comforted each of us. To the families of the other crewmembers, we send our love and share their sorrow." McAuliffe and his two children, Scott, 9, and Caroline 6, have been in seclusion since the explosion Tuesday. The senior partner in McAuliffe's firm, Christopher Gallagher, said McAuliffe drafted the statement with two other members of the firm who are with him in Florida.

shuttle with her fourth graders at the Alice Bell School in Knoxville, where she teaches. "Vehicle has exploded. We are awaiting word from any recovery forces downrange," Nesbitt said from Mission Control. "The vehicle has exploded," a NASA official told Grace Corrigan, McAuliffe's mother, who viewed the launch from a spectator's stand at Cape Canaveral. "The vehicle has exploded?" Corrigan asked in disbelief.

"Damn it. There's a major malfunction. Shut up so we can hear," said a student at Concord High School, where 200 pupils and teachers moments earlier had been cheering wildly. At the Johnson Space Center in Houston, "Everybody became very quiet. We kept hoping for another dolence from people as far away as Alaska were on display for students who wished to read them.

Most referred to McAuliffe as a heroine, he said. A letter of condolence from President Reagan arrived just before the end of the brief school day, Foley said. "This letter is for us. I'm sharing it with my students and not sharing it with anybody else until they hear it." Foley said Jill Seymour, president of the student council, would read it aloud at a private memorial service for faculty and students at 1 p.m. today, and any participants who want to speak may.

"It's going to be difficult for her (Seymour) to read it," he said, "but if it takes a half hour, it takes a half hour." in space younger adults are exceptions. Most of the respondents under 25 and half of those under 35 say they'd like a shuttle trip. "I would be privileged to go a vending machine mechanic in space," said Earl William Bennett, Jacksonville, 111. Less than half (49 percent) of the parents say they discussed the shuttle tragedy with their children. Talks with kids were held by 62 percent of the college graduates, 43 percent of the high school graduates and 30 percent of parents who didn't finish high school.

Nineteen percent of those who talked with their children say they tried to explain what death means. Another 19 percent said they explained that striving for achievement involves risk. CONCORD, N.H. (AP) Seven black ribbons fluttered in an icy breeze yesterday above a picture of Christa McAuliffe taped to a maple tree outside Concord High School, a somber tribute to the teacher and her Ijix Challenger crewmates. Grieving students attached the ribbons, a small American flag, the poem "High Flight" by John Gillespie Magee and McAuliffe's picture to the tree during their first day of classes since her death.

Later, others added a poster with printed block letters: "We Love You Christa." Some signed it. Principal Charles Foley said the half-day school session was extremely somber, with many signs of grief. "I don't know of a single class Poll supports civilians US Gannett News Service WASHINGTON Most Americans say space flights should continue to include civilians such as teacher Christa McAuliffe, despite Tuesday's explosion in which McAuliffe and six other crew members were killed. But most say they'd reply "no thanks" if offered a ride on a space shuttle. Those are among results of a USA Today telephone poll Wednesday night that asked a random sample of adults five questions concerning the shuttle tragedy.

The answers: Seventy-three percent say the space shuttle program should continue if an investigation shows a similar accident can be avoided. Four of five men (81 percent) say the flights should continue but only Flowers, telegrams, photographs and a model of the Challenger We in a display case yesterday at the Concord, N.H., High School in remembrance of Christa McAuliffe..

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