Word: superhot
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...changes, none was more carefully scrutinized than the redesign of what proved to be Challenger's fatal flaw: the joint between segments of the solid-fuel rocket booster. Zeroing in on the booster joints, which are sealed by rubber O rings that are supposed to prevent leaks of superhot gas from the burning fuel, a team composed of outside experts as well as specialists from NASA and Morton Thiokol, manufacturer of the rocket, evolved a design that eventually withstood five full-scale, two-minute stationary firing tests at Thiokol's Utah proving grounds...
...decided that the rocket originally scheduled to boost the craft from a shuttle cargo bay could pose a hazard; it was replaced with a safer solid-fuel booster. Another change in plans involved putting extra gold sheeting on the Galileo spacecraft because of the scheduled pass close to the superhot atmosphere of Venus...
...paper. Quickly the paper became so plentiful that it masked rather than exposed the problems. The Rogers report is expected to detail the extraordinary tale of the now famous O rings, the synthetic-rubber circles, .28 in. thick and 37.5 ft. in circumference, designed to make certain that the superhot gases generated within each solid booster could not escape through the joints of the rocket's segments. When flames did penetrate a rocket joint on Challenger, they ignited the shuttle's external liquid-fuel tank, causing the explosion. The commission will cite the O-ring history not only...
...history. Costing some $20 million, the search also retrieved enough of the shuttle's parts to substantiate the findings of NASA investigators and a presidential commission looking into the disaster. The probers have concluded that a joint between two segments of the shuttle's right booster failed, letting superhot gases escape and rapidly ignite liquid fuel from the external tank, causing an explosion 73 seconds into the flight...
NASA, meanwhile, continued to defend itself in the commission's public hearings at Cape Canaveral. NASA technicians speculated on a variety of reasons--other than the cold weather--why a joint in Challenger's right solid- fuel booster began leaking, spewing superhot gases and probably triggering the catastrophe. The commission seemed unimpressed. Chairman William Rogers urged NASA to include independent experts in making its evaluations. Otherwise, he protested, "The people running the tests, if successful, can prove that they were right all along...