Message-ID: <8ZvAxEW00VcJE2h05x@andrew.cmu.edu>
Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU
From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU
To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU
Date: Thu,  1 Mar 90 02:29:21 -0500 (EST)
Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #93

SPACE Digest                                      Volume 11 : Issue 93

Today's Topics:
			  operational status
		      Re: Challenger Last Words
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 28 Feb 90 22:31:27 GMT
From: swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!henry@ucsd.edu  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: operational status

In article <9002262130.AA23387@ti.com> mccall@skvax1.csc.ti.com writes:
>There are no "operational" space vehicles, in that sense, with the
>possible exception of the Proton.  *Any* vehicle of which there are
>only 4 copies and which has only flown a few handfulls of times is
>experimental by definition.  So that seems to say that almost *all*
>'operational' use of space is really experimental.

Proton is by no means the only vehicle that would qualify.  Certainly
the "A" booster (Vostok/Soyuz/etc.) qualifies, since it has more launches
behind it than all other boosters on the planet put together.  There's
Proton.  I'd say Scout, Atlas-Centaur, and Delta qualify, and Titan 3
is at least marginal.  All of these birds have been fiddled with a little
bit over time, but the same is true of almost any "operational" vehicle
in other areas, e.g. the 747.
-- 
MSDOS, abbrev:  Maybe SomeDay |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
an Operating System.          | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu

------------------------------

Date: 28 Feb 90 23:38:39 GMT
From: bgsuvax!sbrown@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu  (Scott F. Brown)
Subject: Re: Challenger Last Words

From article <23146@usc.edu>, by robiner@iris.usc.edu (Steve Robiner):
> Does anyone out there know if the last minutes of the Challenger
> flight recorder were ever released.  If so, where can I get a copy
> or transcript.
> 
> About a month or so after the crash, I heard that the NYT was suing
> NASA for the tape, but that's the last I heard of it.
> 
> I now see accounts of the crash where NASA officials publicly indicate the
> crew died at impact (with the ocean) and not during the explosion as originally
> speculated.
> 
> =Steve=

	There is no need to know this.  If it is true that the NYT tried to
sue NASA for the tapes then it proves that the NYT isn't any better than
Geraldo.  What people are saying/doing/thinking during the moments when they
know they are going to die, is too personnal of a thing to be open for public
observation.  Just my opinion...

******************************************************************************
* 	- The people of the earth stood waiting                              *
*	  Watching as the ships came one by one                              *
*	  Setting fire to the sky as they landed                             *
*	  Carrying to the world Children of the Sun                          *
*	Billy Thorpe                                                         *
*                                                                            *
*        					-Scott F. Brown              *
*                                                                            *
*                                              sbrown@andy.bgsu.edu.uucp     *
******************************************************************************

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End of SPACE Digest V11 #93
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