"John Maxson" wrote
While you're at it, you might want to clarify what you said
yesterday as to how soon after SRB ignition any 51-L ascent
RCS commands could have been telemetered.

I don't recall saying anything at all about that.

I tried to say that such parameters (as well as valve positions, thruster
pressures and temps, etc.) were on telemetry throughout ascent (heck, I
watched them live on STS-1, I was on the 'Silver Team' for the very first
shuttle launch). But the ascent software -- Major Modes 102, 103 etc.,
through MECO -- did not have the capability to even issue such commands, and
this couldn't happen until after moding to OPS 6 (RTLS as I recall --
haven't looked it up, could be wrong -- other rotary-switch-selected abort
choices were TAL, AOA, and ATO), whose software could then command thruster
firings during ET sep and then for forward tank depletion (for c.g.
control). That's what I had been trying to say.

So it's not just a question of dispute over whether jets WERE fired -- it's
about whether during these flight phases the DAP could even fire jets if it
wanted to (or if the crew even commanded them with the THC, say). Since
flight software was constructed in this way, according to all documentation
(such as the FSSR), I remain baffled by your insistence that there was some
'secret way' unbeknownst to the software developers, the flight controllers,
and even the crew, to turn on any of the RCS thrusters during ascent,
without moding to RTLS, which then would leave its own indelible
fingerprints on the PASS and BFS downlist.