New Columbia loss report out today

"Scott Stevenson" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 13 Jan 2009 08:27:43 -0600, Pat Flannery
wrote:


There was also a concern that the strike had damaged the pyros that
would release the parachutes. Admittedly, that was a concern that came
up once 12 reached its parking orbit, and the controllers had time to
think about things, and not at the time of the incident. But had they
been damaged, an abort wouldn't have helped them any.

Also, remember on 15, they had a parachute fail. If that one had
fouled one of the remaining two, I'm not sure what would have
happened, but I'm guessing that the CM wasn't designed for a one chute
landing.

take care,
Scott

I read somewhere, sometime ago, that the CM would survive a single
chute landing on water with the crew surviving perhaps with minor injuries.
The couches were designed to collapse and absorb the impact. I also
remember that Apollo 7 almost did not fly because it was using crew couches
from a Block I CM, and did not give much protection in a land touchdown. On
launch day the wind was blowing across pad in an inland direction. The wind
would not prevent a succesful launch, but if the booster failed in the first
moments of flight and the CM performed an abort, the CM would landed inland
on the hard ground, seriously injuring the crew (as if they did not have
enough problems).

I am typing from memory and may be wrong on the details, PLEASE, PLEASE
correct me if I am wrong.