Word: oxygenate
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...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...
...side of 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...
...space walk, and Chaffee, a rookie astronaut, had been scheduled to run through a simulated Apollo launch. Suited up, they clambered into the gleaming steel cone 218 ft. above Pad 34 and hooked themselves up to life-support systems. Technicians sealed the airtight double hatch plates and pumped pure oxygen into the little chamber. The test countdown had proceeded for several hours when suddenly, over their radio link to the spacecraft, controllers heard the cry "Fire aboard the spacecraft!" followed by movements, more shouts and a sharp scream of pain. "It was horrible," recalled a former NASA official. "We could...
...began, NASA eventually concluded, with a short circuit in the Apollo's 20 miles of wiring. Flames spread along a nylon net under the astronauts' couches. Had the fire occurred in a natural atmosphere, the three might have had time to escape. But the blaze flashed through the pure oxygen in seconds. Even then the astronauts might have had a chance if they could have blown out Apollo's hatch by touching off explosive bolts. But Grissom was firmly opposed to the use of such bolts. Splashing down in the Atlantic in his Mercury capsule 5 1/ 2 years earlier...
...flights for 18 months and extensively redesigned the Soyuz capsule. NASA was also cautious. It suspended manned flights for 21 months after the Apollo fire, a period of agonizing self-appraisal. Admitting that no one had realized the extent of the fire hazard in a capsule full of pure oxygen, NASA switched to cabin atmospheres that consisted of 60% oxygen and 40% nitrogen while the spacecraft was on the pad. The agency also developed a new type of hatch that could be opened in five seconds. As NASA workers last week searched for answers to the Challenger tragedy and pondered...