Word: hydrogen
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...fact, Halley's spectacular show did not go entirely unobserved. Last week scientists at NASA's Ames Research Center in California proudly displayed computercolored ultraviolet images of Halley's hydrogen coma as it appeared between Feb. 2 and 5, and described the changes in the comet during its most active period...
...Feynman probed further, he was told by NASA that the surface temperature of the external tank, which contains supercold liquid oxygen (-297 degrees ) and hydrogen (-423 degrees ) had not been abnormally cold, casting doubt on a theory that liquid fuel, leaking unnoticed from the tank, had chilled the nearby booster. He also discovered that the wind on the morning of the launch had been blowing across the cold surface of the tank toward the right booster. As one NASA engineer explained, "Even a slight breeze, wafting over the external tank full of those cryogens (supercold fluids) may have been enough...
...setting dials and plugging in patch cords in an arrangement that resembled an old-fashioned telephone switchboard. Data were fed into ENIAC in the form of IBM punch cards; a million cards were required for the monster's first assignment, a top-secret numerical simulation for the still untested hydrogen bomb. Every time a tube burned out, which happened twice a day at the start, a technician had to rummage among the tangle of wires to locate and replace the dead component. To prevent rodents from nibbling at ENIAC and destroying vital parts, Eckert recalled at the anniversary party...
...Challenger's right booster had either melted or wrenched loose the struts that held the booster to the lower end of the external tank. The booster then pivoted on its still intact upper-attachment fitting and crashed its nose into the tank wall. The escaping liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen ignited, causing the fatal explosion. At week's end NASA had not commented on the report...
Richard Feynman, a physicist on the presidential commission, said he does not believe the low temperature readings were caused by a cold hydrogen leak. In Wednesday's editions of the Washington Post, he said the readings could have been a result of breezes blowing past the cold external fuel tank onto the booster rocket...