Challenger - Countdown To Disaster

cymatty · 2 Feb 2006 at 21:57

Jokester said:
It would appear that George Bush is backing NASA to go to Mars, but how much cold hard cash he's giving them I'm not sure, it certainly won't be enough for going to Mars or even returning to the Moon in a hurry I would have thought.

If anyone is going to do it, it'll be the Chinese.

By the sounds of things, NASA will be going back to what they intended originally, a small reusable craft for crew only.

Jokester

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/exploration/spacecraft/index.html

Big Kev · 2 Feb 2006 at 21:58

The obvious problem was with the massive financial commitment and waiting for the problem to be fixed would have cost far too much, so they took a calculated risk, way of the world I'm afraid.

Having said that, even if there were 1 in 10 odds of not making it, I'd still have gone up.

cheets64 · 2 Feb 2006 at 22:00

I am sure this was a repeat or CH4 had a very similar program on this, was it the big black washer that was never repleaced and it just split after take off.

PardonTheWait · 2 Feb 2006 at 22:01

They played Sigur Ros on the advert, yay.

Jokester · 2 Feb 2006 at 22:02

cymatty said:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/exploration/spacecraft/index.html

Yeah, it's part of their goal of a manned mission to Mars. But I wouldn't be willing to put on a bet that they'll return to the moon by 2020.

Jokester

chopchop · 2 Feb 2006 at 22:05

cymatty said:
They said the washer was unstable at any temprature.

nope they said at the time of launch the temperature would have been too low for the seal to work properly.
if it was at any temperature, then the seal wouldnt have been used in the first place.

cymatty · 2 Feb 2006 at 22:07

chopchop said:
nope they said at the time of launch the temperature would have been too low for the seal to work properly.
if it was at any temperature, then the seal wouldnt have been used in the first place.

Sorry yeah, they also said it was unstable at room temperature as well, earlier in the program.

Jokester · 2 Feb 2006 at 22:08

chopchop said:
nope they said at the time of launch the temperature would have been too low for the seal to work properly.
if it was at any temperature, then the seal wouldnt have been used in the first place.

Nope, they actually said that even at room temperature the o-ring didn't perform as required. Quite why that particular material was used is beyond me.

Jokester

Creature · 2 Feb 2006 at 22:10

Why not wait till it was warmer and save the risk :confused:

cymatty · 2 Feb 2006 at 22:13

Creature said:
Why not wait till it was warmer and save the risk

Well if you say room temp is 22oC, then the rings still might not have worked even if the outside temp was 30oC+

Creature · 2 Feb 2006 at 22:14

Well they were saying that it was -14 and they were going to launch.

cymatty · 2 Feb 2006 at 22:16

Creature said:
Well they were saying that it was -14 and they were going to launch.

Yeah and they were stupid for doing so.

andi · 2 Feb 2006 at 22:31

They were talking fahrenheit weren't they?

Jokester · 2 Feb 2006 at 22:36

andi said:
They were talking fahrenheit weren't they?

Nah, it would be Celsius I would have thought as -14F is about -25C.

Jokester

Creature · 2 Feb 2006 at 22:38

How can they be so ******* stupid :eek:

andi · 2 Feb 2006 at 22:39

I think the voice over is talking Celsius, but the characters numbers seem high to me..

And they keep saying 14 below freezing, not below zero...

Nedved11 · 2 Feb 2006 at 22:41

Freaky watching that they are going to die

cymatty · 2 Feb 2006 at 22:41

Creature said:
How can they be so ******* stupid

What about the poor sods who knew what was going to happen, they have to live with that forever.

Creature · 2 Feb 2006 at 22:45

Nedved11 said:
Freaky watching that they are going to die

Very

cymatty · 2 Feb 2006 at 22:46

1250mph ****.