Word: tankful
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...apparent rupture in the strong rocket casing--whether at a seam or elsewhere--had the effect of pointing a torch at the side of Challenger's fuel tank. The theory is that the flame either burnt through the tank or a "destruct package," causing the explosion, or raised the tank pressure to intolerable limits with the same result...
There has been published speculation, based on unidentified sources, that the finger of flame either burned through the fuel tank wall and ignited its huge supply of liquid hydrogen, or that it set off the destruction mechanism by lighting a primer cord...
Experts had not studied the electronic control panel to see from which part of the shuttle it might have come. There are many such panels on the flight deck and middeck and also on the fuel tank and booster rockets...
Officials said the tapes might be the most crucial piece of evidence in the investigation. They could reveal whether the fireball was caused by something that went wrong with the spaceship's huge external fuel tank or whether the fault lay with one of the two solid fuel rocket boosters...
After the initial blast, the slow motionvideotape replays showed an explosion of the hugeexternal fuel tank, which carried half a milliongallons of super-cold, super-volatile liquidoxygen and hydrogen. Challenger, dwarfed by thefuel tank, burst into pieces which rained into theAtlantic for 45 minutes...