Solid Rocket

Aerospace experts differed sharply Friday on whether the powerful solid rocket motors that lifted the space shuttle Challenger off the launching pad Tuesday were the likely cause of its disastrous explosion just 73 seconds later. The boosters continue to be a prime suspect in the tragedy because films of the disaster seem to show flame coming out of the side of one of the boosters.

The California Science Center has won a new companion exhibit to the space shuttle Endeavour: the shuttle's external tank and twin solid rocket boosters. The tank –- the orange cylindrical structure affixed to the shuttle's belly at launch –- and twin solid rocket boosters had been displayed at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. When the shuttle exhibit is assembled next year, it will be a challenge to ship the external tank from Florida. It is typically moved by barge, meaning it might have to be taken through the Panama Canal, said Science Center President Jeffrey N. Rudolph.

Exhaust from space shuttle and other rocket launches makes the government one of the biggest contributors to ozone depletion, an environmental group charged last week. "Each launch of the space shuttle or the Air Force's Titan IV does more to deplete the fragile ozone layer . . . than the annual ground-level emissions of chlorofluorocarbons from most individual (industrial) plants," the report by the National Toxics Campaign Fund of Boston said.

A spacecraft that broke up last year during a mission to study comets was probably destroyed by the heat from its rocket motor, NASA officials said. The theory is the most probable of four scenarios outlined by the board that investigated the loss of the $159-million Contour. The board found the hot plume of exhaust gases produced by the firing of the solid rocket motor probably caused "structural failure."

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 explosive loss of an unmanned Titan 34D rocket during a military mission last April was most likely caused by the peeling of insulation inside a solid-fuel booster, the Air Force said today. The loss of the rubberized insulation allowed the burning fuel to eat through the thin metal skin of the rocket booster, touching off a catastrophic explosion, said Brig. Gen. Nathan J. Lindsay.

John Young, head of the astronaut office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, has questioned the redesign of the solid rocket booster that caused the Challenger accident in light of new information on wind turbulence, a newspaper reported. In a memo, Young voiced concern about the shuttle's ability to withstand dynamic forces it encounters at launching, the Washington Post said in today's editions, quoting unidentified sources.

A spacecraft that broke up last year during a mission to study comets was probably destroyed by the heat from its rocket motor, NASA officials said. The theory is the most probable of four scenarios outlined by the board that investigated the loss of the $159-million Contour. The board found the hot plume of exhaust gases produced by the firing of the solid rocket motor probably caused "structural failure."

Early tests show that a new rocket engine design will eliminate the flaws that caused the space shuttle Challenger to blow up, a National Aeronautics and Space Administration official said Monday. John Thomas, manager of NASA's solid rocket motor redesign team, also said the space agency is on track toward a resumption of space flights in early 1988.

Production of a critical ingredient for solid rocket fuel resumed Monday at a Kerr-McGee Corp. plant, five weeks after explosions destroyed the only other plant making the chemical a mile away. Workers resumed production Monday morning of the chemical, ammonium perchlorate, which provides the oxygen necessary to burn solid fuel in the booster rockets on the space shuttle and in some military rockets.

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 Tombigbee Waterway curves through these hills like a giant question mark, as though the land itself is puzzled over the mystery of it all. High on a bluff, where the Tennessee Valley Authority a few years ago dumped $1.5 billion into a nuclear power plant before abandoning the project, the big rigs are at work again.

Exhaust from space shuttle and other rocket launches makes the government one of the biggest contributors to ozone depletion, an environmental group charged last week. "Each launch of the space shuttle or the Air Force's Titan IV does more to deplete the fragile ozone layer . . . than the annual ground-level emissions of chlorofluorocarbons from most individual (industrial) plants," the report by the National Toxics Campaign Fund of Boston said.

Lockheed Missile Systems Division won contracts worth more than $1 billion to build new space shuttle solid rocket boosters at an abandoned nuclear power plant in Mississippi, NASA announced today. The total cost for the controversial seven-year project, which calls for design, development and testing of the new advanced solid rocket motor, or ASRM, along with construction of new manufacturing facilities, was estimated by Lockheed of Sunnyvale, Calif., to be more than $1.1 billion.

Production of a critical ingredient for solid rocket fuel resumed Monday at a Kerr-McGee Corp. plant, five weeks after explosions destroyed the only other plant making the chemical a mile away. Workers resumed production Monday morning of the chemical, ammonium perchlorate, which provides the oxygen necessary to burn solid fuel in the booster rockets on the space shuttle and in some military rockets.

A government contractor that makes and tests rockets just east of Reno was told on Tuesday to be more open about just what it makes and the safety of its operations, particularly with Storey County commissioners. "I don't think the board realized what was going to happen out there," Commissioner Mark Schrader told officials of Hi-Shear Technology Corp. in ordering them to allow closer state and county scrutiny of their facility.

The test firing near San Jose of a rocket booster motor designed for use in the Titan IV space launch alarmed more than a thousand area residents with its sensational rumble and smoke. Officials at the San Jose Police Department and Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department said they received almost 1,300 calls after the two-minute demonstration firing in the mountains south of San Jose.

Disappointed rocket engineers said Friday the failure of a hydraulic system during a shuttle booster test-firing prevented them from gathering key data about how new O-ring joints respond to external forces. The 52-foot subscale booster was fired Thursday at Marshall Space Flight Center in the first of a series of tests to subject the sensitive joints to both internal and external forces similar to those experienced by real boosters at liftoff. "We've looked at some more data since (the test) .

Solid rocket fuel is among the most explosive and dangerous substances in the defense and space industries, but it was chosen for use in the boosters of the Space Shuttle because among other things it is cheaper and easier to store than liquid fuel, according to experts in the space industry.

The test firing near San Jose of a rocket booster motor designed for use in the Titan IV space launch alarmed more than a thousand area residents with its sensational rumble and smoke. Officials at the San Jose Police Department and Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department said they received almost 1,300 calls after the two-minute demonstration firing in the mountains south of San Jose.