Charleston wrote:

The best motion picture film photography of the
smoke puffs at launch, that is the cameras positioned with a direct angle to
observe the start-up tranisent as to location, direction of smoke, size,
etcetera, all failed to operate! The odds of that failure being coincidence
are dim, but it did happen that way.



And your point is?

As for your inability to see the smoke, please don't blame me. It takes a
lot of bandwidth to put up MPEG II or AVI. I will put up some higher
resolution photography later tonight for a limited timeframe. Personally, I
can see plenty of black smoke up to about 3.4 seconds, and subsequently I
see significant diffuse smoke brightly illuminated by the light of the SRB
flames.


That stuff coming off the side of the tank, and falling into the area
behind the ET isn't related to the SRB problem, it shows up on every
Shuttle launch; it's either some sort of venting from the ET or frost
falling off of its exterior surface.

Also, I conclude that the "STS 51-L JSC Visual Data Analysis
Sub-Team" and the team at LMSC got it right when they saw smoke and "solid
material" as late as 45 seconds emanating from the same region of the
vehicle.


Are we talking about the SRB here, or some other part of the vehicle?

Unfortuantely, they were overruled by the film team at KSC. As
you probably know, it is KSC's views that are reflected in the final
Presidential Commission report.



As we have photos showing the plume coming out of the SRB and impinging
on the ET's surface, followed by the failure of the ET, and also
detailed extremely clear film of the burning of the O-rings at the field
joint during SRB ignition with a plume of smoke exiting the SRB, this
whole thing is about as open and shut case as it's possible to get in
regards to the cause of the accident.

Pat