"Doug..." wrote in message
...
In article ,
says...

snip

Could the buckling have been the source of the bangs?

That's what Melvill seemed to think when he was making a few remarks on
the runway after landing. But I'm sure there will be a very thorough
review of the data before they can say for certain. After all, the
buckling could have been the *result* of whatever caused the bangs, not
the cause itself.

It's unlikely that the buckling was caused by any kind of 'rapid expansion'
(explosion) event - that would surely have left holes, not buckling. It
might have been the change in temperature or the differential between
internal temps (near the engine, after all) and external temps.


--
Alan Erskine
We can get people to the Moon in five years,
not the fifteen GWB proposes.
Give NASA a real challenge