Apr 29 1986
From The Space Library
NASA announced the termination of a contract with TRW to design a baseline hybrid power system for the Phase B Space Station electrical power system. TRW expressed their wish not to pursue the project, but remained a major contributor to three other work packages. (NASA Release 86-55)
Unpublished test results done for the Presidential Commission studying the Challenger accident showed that cold weather on the morning of the Challenger launch made failure inevitable. Other findings by the commission concluded that a second joint on the right-hand booster rocket ruptured seconds after the Challenger breakup, suggesting that the joint was unduly fragile; reusable booster rockets ballooned about two-hundredths of an inch after each previous flight, and segments of the ill-fated rocket did not match well; a breach of the bottom of the external tank led to a structural failure but the nose cone of the booster rocket crashing into the fuel tank was not responsible for the final breakup; and the Shuttle did not explode, but rather a hydrogen-oxygen flash fire caused it simply to fall apart. (NY Times, Apr 30/86)
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