'Technical Summary of an O-Ring Cover-Up'
(requested by Pentagon efficiency expert
A. Ernest Fitzgerald on July 4, 2003)

NASA's fault-tree analysis failed to consider that Challenger's solid rocket
boosters could have crossed paths within the 51-L fireball. A crossing
necessarily negates Rogers' postulated "right-aft O-ring burnthrough."

In a hearing on February 7, 1986, Dr. Feynman inquired: "Can I ask a
dumb question? Do we know on which side which rocket is afterwards?
Did they go like this and cross or do they look like they went that way?"
NASA put Feynman off, and Rogers sidetracked him. Dr. Feynman did
not know about NASA's black ID band until I told him, in late 1987.

For photo/recovery identification, NASA paints a black ID band 18'' high
around the nose of the space shuttle's *left* solid rocket booster. Rogers
ignored this ID band in his report, most notably at the crucial fireball
exit.
Instead, Rogers conjectured a "R-SRB burnthrough" for identification.

Rogers' ID relies on an enhanced 15-second film strip ending in explosion.
However, in JSC's '51-L Mission History Video,' the continuation of this
film strip leaves no doubt that the *flared* booster sported the ID band.

On January 22, 1986, in a pre-Challenger technical report requested by
Senator Grassley's office, I warned: "... and 'cold flows' run at Pad B
were a failure, costing much waste of time and money. Tom Wiley can
testify to this. The net result of all this would be delays in launching
from Pad B, and delays in Centaur launches. I also learned from Bill
Bassler, Centaur 'single-point-of-contact' in LSOC CMO, that the waste
of hydrogen was deliberate, ..."

The terminal LH2 leaks were at the base of the left booster. It became
super-cooled during prelaunch scrubs. A thrust imbalance resulted. That
caused a right-aft leak in the hydrogen tank at lift-off, later aggravated
by
5000-plus degree heat from continuous R-Aft RCS firings at 59 seconds.
The pre-explosion chamber pressures of the two boosters (relative to
each other and to their respective lift-off pressures) were to be expected.

NASA could not identify the key piece of lower booster debris by serial
number, or by *any other* of NASA's standard identification methods.

The Rogers Report admits that no direct view exists of the location from
which black smoke at lift-off and an assumed burnthrough at 59 seconds
originated. Live launch-day video refutes NASA's "burnthrough" copies.
Congressional subpoena of the originals should lead to credible closure.

John Thomas Maxson (www.mission51l.com)