Surviving an O-ring failure

[Urwumpe]

Of course I know there are three parachutes (actually 7) on the STS all in all. I just didn't expect that the SRB's parachute would still deploy after the destruction of the SRB's. I never saw the accident video which I posted above.


By the way, does anybody know if there was any intention to try to find parts of the cabin?

Well, the SRBs are very solid metal tubes, which both survived the destruction nearly intact. They only got destroyed by range safety command, triggering linear shaped charges.

There was a very intense search for the cabin, because the faster this cabin was located, the bigger was the chance to extract useful data before the loss of power in the GPC and MDM hardware, as both used magnetic core memory. Salt water destroys the memory rather quickly, but if they would have found and salvaged them days after the crash, the available data in the memory would have been still possible to reconstruct (as you have 4 GPCs with the same data in theory).

The cabin was found only 6 weeks after the crash, and parts of the Shuttle and the cabin got washed ashore even years later.

 

[Moonwalker]

...They only got destroyed by range safety command, triggering linear shaped charges.

I know This was why I didn't expect the parachutes would still deploy.

 

[myles]

Why did the shuttle break apart? I read something about the aerodynamic forces, but at around T+73 seconds, the shuttle was only going around mach 2... (found that out with Orbiter )

 

[pete.dakota]

The stack was at Max-Q; The portion of the ascent where the aerodynamic forces are at their greatest. Almost anything except a zero degree AoA will result in breakup at those airspeeds.

 

[Urwumpe]

moonwalker: The SRBs had been flying uncontrolled for some seconds and the parachute already deployed on the moment of destruction of the stack - better?.

Why did the shuttle break apart? I read something about the aerodynamic forces, but at around T+73 seconds, the shuttle was only going around mach 2... (found that out with Orbiter )

You have to look at the dynamic pressure value, not the Mach number alone.

Mach 2 is quite fast when you are at too dense parts of the atmosphere and your external tank is just disintegrating below you. This can have the effect of you walking with a large MDF board during a hurricane.

 

[Moonwalker]

moonwalker: The SRBs had been flying uncontrolled for some seconds and the parachute already deployed on the moment of destruction of the stack - better?.

It's unmissable that the SRB's had been flying uncontrolled for some seconds I also knew that they were destroyed a few seconds later. But I just didn't know for many years that the parachutes deployed until I saw the video of it.

 

[Urwumpe]

But I just didn't know for many years that the parachutes deployed until I saw the video of it.

"I know nothing! Nothing!" (For Germans: "I seh nix, i hör nix und i woaß nix" )