O Rings

Key safety systems in nuclear power plants depend on O-rings, the type of rubber seal that caused the Challenger space shuttle disaster, which could fail in a nuclear accident, critics of the nuclear industry said in a report released Tuesday. Dan Ford, who prepared the report on O-rings for Public Citizen, a Ralph Nader-sponsored consumer group, said that the seals are not designed to withstand the high temperatures that might be caused by an accident.

Millions of fire sprinklers in buildings across America are being replaced because they might not work properly during fires, the manufacturer said Wednesday. Central Sprinkler Co., which is owned by Tyco International Ltd., is providing free replacements for the sprinklers, said L. Dennis Kozlowski, Tyco's chief executive. The company discovered the older sprinkler heads have O-ring seals that can corrode, he said.

An extraordinary string of mishaps and irregularities bedeviled the assembly of the Challenger rocket joint that is suspected of rupturing before the spacecraft's explosion, the presidential commission investigating the space shuttle disaster was told Friday.

The Firestone-Ford tire debacle is eerily reminiscent of NASA's Challenger disaster. For months or even years, many people suspected that brittle rubber in a defective O-ring design might contribute to hot-gas penetration of the solid rocket boosters, which could lead to catastrophic failure of the shuttle. Similarly, for years many have suspected that brittle and defective rubber used in tire manufacturing could result in tire delamination and catastrophic failure, especially in under-inflated tires.

The original O-ring shuttle materials blamed for failing and causing the 1986 Challenger disaster appear to be superior to other seals, a Morton Thiokol Inc. official said. Tests involving Vitron and O-rings made from other rubber-like seals between joints in the solid-fuel booster rockets indicate Vitron performs better, Carver Kennedy, the head of the firm's redesign program, said at its headquarters at Brigham City, Utah.

The O-ring seals in the joints of the space shuttle Discovery's booster rockets suffered no damage during last month's launch, NASA reported Monday. The shuttle Challenger was destroyed and its crew of seven lost on Jan. 28, 1986, when super-hot gas and flames burned through the synthetic rubber O-rings in a faulty joint in one of its boosters. Discovery's Sept.

NASA officials revealed today that up to seven crucial O-ring seals used in space shuttle boosters appear to have been sabotaged earlier this summer but said the damaged seals never made it out of the factory and never threatened an actual flight. "We are absolutely sure we don't have any bad stuff in any hardware, both test hardware or flight hardware," said Royce Mitchell, a booster project manager at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

A full-scale shuttle booster, loaded with 1.1 million pounds of fuel and deliberately riddled with major flaws, was test fired today in a crucial make-or-break bid to prove new O-ring joints will prevent another Challenger disaster. The 126-foot rocket, mounted on its side in a massive test stand in the Utah desert at Morton Thiokol Inc.'s booster production plant, roared to life at 1 p.m. MDT and burned for a full two minutes as planned.

NASA has reported that evidence of leakage and extensive damage to O-ring seals have been discovered in the nozzle joint of the space shuttle solid rocket boosters after the last two flights. The same joint leakage problems and design flaws that initiated the Challenger disaster, nine years ago, are still present and have not been satisfactorily corrected. As a result of these abnormalities, NASA is seriously considering grounding the shuttle indefinitely. After the Challenger accident, Congress initiated the Advanced Solid Rocket Motor (ASRM)

Hot rocket gas singed O-rings in Columbia's booster rockets during liftoff nearly two weeks ago but did not endanger the space shuttle or its seven astronauts, NASA said. The two scorched O-rings, one in each of the solid-fuel boosters, are used during assembly to keep adhesive away from the critical primary O-ring seals.

In their second raid in a week, Westminster police and the FBI on Tuesday confiscated a warehouse full of allegedly pirated Microsoft software in Long Beach, in what they believe is a $60-million counterfeit ring run by Asian gangs in Orange County. Nearly 10,000 CD-ROMs, mostly copies of Microsoft's operating system Windows 98, were found crammed inside a brick storage garage at 6655 Atlantic Ave. Police estimated that the goods were worth at least $2 million. No one was arrested.

Hot rocket gas singed O-rings in Columbia's booster rockets during liftoff nearly two weeks ago but did not endanger the space shuttle or its seven astronauts, NASA said. The two scorched O-rings, one in each of the solid-fuel boosters, are used during assembly to keep adhesive away from the critical primary O-ring seals.

NASA has reported that evidence of leakage and extensive damage to O-ring seals have been discovered in the nozzle joint of the space shuttle solid rocket boosters after the last two flights. The same joint leakage problems and design flaws that initiated the Challenger disaster, nine years ago, are still present and have not been satisfactorily corrected. As a result of these abnormalities, NASA is seriously considering grounding the shuttle indefinitely. After the Challenger accident, Congress initiated the Advanced Solid Rocket Motor (ASRM)

The space shuttle Endeavour was grounded indefinitely Friday so NASA can solve the problem of singed O-rings discovered on the solid rocket boosters after two recent missions. Shuttle managers stressed that the problem had nothing in common with the failure of an O-ring that caused the shuttle Challenger to explode nine years ago. Brewster Shaw, director of shuttle operations, put the seriousness of the problem at "less than 1" on a scale of 10.

For the second space shuttle flight in a row, NASA has found heat damage on a critical O-ring seal in a rocket booster used by Discovery this month. It is the same nozzle joint in which the problem occurred on Atlantis, only this time it's in the right booster, NASA said Wednesday. In both cases, hot gas from burning rocket fuel singed the primary rubber seal in the joint but did not pass beyond the seal. Neither of the shuttles nor crews were in any danger, NASA officials said.

The O-ring seals in the joints of the space shuttle Discovery's booster rockets suffered no damage during last month's launch, NASA reported Monday. The shuttle Challenger was destroyed and its crew of seven lost on Jan. 28, 1986, when super-hot gas and flames burned through the synthetic rubber O-rings in a faulty joint in one of its boosters. Discovery's Sept.

The FBI said Friday it is investigating apparent sabotage of O-rings destined for space shuttle booster rockets, a problem that a NASA official said may have been motivated by a company incentive program. The defects were detected before any damaged rings were sent to the rocket maker. A "very small number" of O-rings that appeared to have been deliberately cut were discovered in June by the manufacturer, HydraPak Inc.

Before Challenger blew up in 1986, space shuttle flights had become so boringly automatic that more media attention was being given to the civilian passengers aboard than to the nuts and bolts of the engineering miracle involved. But for Thursday morning's planned launch of the shuttle Discovery, all eyes--media and otherwise--will be on the now infamous O-rings, the fragile rubber gaskets whose failings brought down Challenger.

Before Challenger blew up in 1986, space shuttle flights had become so boringly automatic that more media attention was being given to the civilian passengers aboard than to the nuts and bolts of the engineering miracle involved. But for Thursday morning's planned launch of the shuttle Discovery, all eyes--media and otherwise--will be on the now infamous O-rings, the fragile rubber gaskets whose failings brought down Challenger.

The FBI said Friday it is investigating apparent sabotage of O-rings destined for space shuttle booster rockets, a problem that a NASA official said may have been motivated by a company incentive program. The defects were detected before any damaged rings were sent to the rocket maker. A "very small number" of O-rings that appeared to have been deliberately cut were discovered in June by the manufacturer, HydraPak Inc.