- Joined
- May 26, 2013
The shuttle was always a mistake. If Congress and the White House had had the guts to keep NASA under the tested and proven Apollo-Saturn platform funded, there would have been no O-ring burn-thru, there would have been no wingtip foam strike, and according to NASA's own 2007 report, the same amount of money that was spent on the shuttle would have ensured six Apollo launches a year (the shuttle averaged 4.5), two of them yearly to the moon, and U.S. boots on Mars likely no later than 1992.The crew cabin did not explode. It separated intact and descended to the ocean over two minutes and 12 seconds, during which the crew was almost certainly alive. The cabin was found relatively whole on the ocean floor but obviously hitting the water at 200MPH was not survivable. Three of the seven astronauts activated their Personal Egress Air Packs (PEAPs), which supply emergency air. The pilot’s PEAP was activated, and his switch panel had switches moved from launch positions, implying deliberate action after the explosion.