Thread by @wmcarterelliott

@thesecurityguy1 @meanlin1 One of the HARD CLASSES I took was called "Space Technology" from Johns Hopkins at APL. Two-hours, each way. Worth it.

Bob Fischell taught the class. He also ran APL's Satellite Department.

He didn't like the Space Shuttle. The Delta rockets were $5 Million, total. 98% reliable

@thesecurityguy1 @meanlin1 They're unmanned. No paperwork.

And then NASA refused to launch any more Delta rockets, insisting all satellites use the Shuttle.

The *paperwork* for anything going on a manned-mission cost $10 Million to fill out.

He gave us a memorable lecture on everything he hated about...

@thesecurityguy1 @meanlin1 the Space Shuttle.

Including that idiotic joint with the O-Rings. They are to keep rain out. You can't keep 2000F gas back using rubber. Just rain.

The gases have to stay away from the outer sheet metal because it'd melt in seconds.

So they cast the segments of the SRB and use

@thesecurityguy1 @meanlin1 TONS of Heat-Resistant Putty like icing in a layer cake.

*THAT* is what keeps the 2000F gas away from the sheet metal.

Not much to the spec, the name describes it completely. It's putty, and it resists heat.

It isn't made locally, it gets trucked in.

Truck Stop Hooker:

@thesecurityguy1 @meanlin1 Truckers get lonely on the road.

Truck stops have The Best Breakfasts you'll find anywhere.

Some have tiny rooms to sleep in. Private toilets are a premium.

And, some local working girls.

At least one of whom was working for the KGB.

Her job was to distract the trucker...

@thesecurityguy1 @meanlin1 She did what was necessary. The trucker carrying the Heat-Resistant Putty didn't notice his truck getting broken into, and a golf-ball-sized "device" stuck into the putty.

So on that cold morning, with every school kid watching Live TV (that used to be a big deal back then),

@thesecurityguy1 @meanlin1 The SRBs were ignited, and upon the pressure spike, the device blew about 4 cubic feet of Heat-Resistant Putty out from between two sections, and those surfaces started to burn.

Right next to the sheet metal.

You can see it yourself in any Challenger footage, they show it every

@thesecurityguy1 @meanlin1 time. There's a puff of black smoke from the joint, and THEN - Look carefully at the exhaust plume. A large slow shadow passes with the much faster gases.

Heat-Resistant Putty. Visible in the plume.

That joint where the smoke puffed out was where the flames later came from.

@thesecurityguy1 @meanlin1 The flames didn't blow up the Challenger.

The thrust from a Solid-Rocket engine is directly proportional to the fuel burn area. That gone wedge of HRP allowed the thrust to increase more than the SSMEs could steer out. (Rocketdyne made the SSMEs.)

At that moment, the Challenger

@thesecurityguy1 @meanlin1 ceased being a rocket assembly to being a giant pinwheel.

It began to yaw. At Mach 8, yaw is not welcome. When the yaw hit ~3°, the structural limits are exceeded, and then it all shreds itself in the supersonic airflow.

You've seen it. The Shuttle ripped apart, THEN exploded.

@thesecurityguy1 @meanlin1 The video record was sufficient to indicate foul play, but they'd need *that* section for forensic analysis to identify the type of explosive used. That's what tells you *who* made the "device".

SEALs "dived the site" (don't look at me, that's what *they* call it) around the

@thesecurityguy1 @meanlin1 clock, ignoring the Otherwise Sacred Navy Dive Tables.

They retrieved it on a Wednesday. Forensics takes a day...

Guess what happened that Friday night?

Some fun guys, for grins, shut off the reactor safeties, shut off the cooling water, and then throttled it up to 110%.

@thesecurityguy1 @meanlin1 The things bored Russian Nuclear Reactor plant operators will do on a drunken dare, amirite?

On a completely unrelated topic, Dick Marcinko wrote some very interesting books. I highly recommend them.

He was the founder of SEAL Team Six. Spent one book talking about his favorite

@thesecurityguy1 @meanlin1 Task - Testing the security of various facilities to see how the security can be improved.

He describes entering a nuclear power plant, too. Taking command of the nuclear plant's control room. He made it sound easy, but he's a great writer.