| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 429.1 | 3.5 on the Richter scale | SASE::BIRO | | Thu May 05 1988 10:59 | 23 |
| ....
from the Boston Globe
In Huntsville, Ala., Don Amitor , a spokesman for NASA's
Marshall Space Flight Center, said Morton-Thiokol had enough
ammonium perchlorate in supply for the next five shuttle launches.
Under the present schedule the fifth launch will be in mid 1989.
....
Pacific Eng. & Production Co is one of two comp in the US
that produce the chemical, the other supplier
is KERR-MCGEE..... is this the same that made the movies...
I think an interesting question would be what will happen
to the priority of shuttle lauches, militrary vs commercial,
will DOD put pressure on to get more of the first 5 flights
if enouth chemical can not be made in time.
One interesting fact about the size of the blast
the first registered 3 on the Richter scale and the 2nd
3.5 - equivalent to a mild earthquake
|
| 429.2 | Not a high-technology part of the Shuttle | STAR::HUGHES | | Thu May 05 1988 17:37 | 11 |
| Ammonium Perchlorate is not a real high tech product to make. Its
used in a lot (read almost all) of modern solid propellant motors
so I'm sure someone could step in if Pac. Eng can't get back online
in a hurry or Kerr McGee can't increase production. (Don't know
what movies you are referring to).
Actually, I'm kind of suprised there are only two sources, although
I guess its not a high demand product if you aren't making rocket
motors.
gary
|
| 429.3 | others affected too? | CHGV04::KAPLOW | sixteen bit paleontologist | Thu May 05 1988 18:17 | 4 |
| Gary;
I wonder what it might do to the Aerotech / Enertek production of
model rocket motors. Odds are that's where they get their AP.
|
| 429.4 | RE 429.3 | STAR::HUGHES | | Thu May 05 1988 18:41 | 11 |
| Maybe.
At least one one of Aerotech's contemporaries buys most of their raw
materials from the big boys at end of contract sales. If, say, UTC buy
x,000 lbs of NH4ClO4 to build a Titan SRM, they have to sell anything
left over, usually at auction. (Even Aerotech may function this
way; I don't know).
It may slow things up for a while though (and/or increase prices).
gary
|
| 429.5 | Back in 6 months?! | VINO::DZIEDZIC | | Fri May 06 1988 09:58 | 6 |
| Heard one of the bigwigs from the company on the news this A.M.
He said they could be back in production around NOVEMBER (!) if
their clients were "understanding". Didn't quite get the last
part, but I think he was inferring if people didn't cancel any
contracts, etc., they could manage to get back on-line quickly.
|
| 429.6 | Start second sourcing | MERIDN::GERMAIN | Down to the Sea in Ships | Mon May 09 1988 12:05 | 5 |
| Wonder if this opens the door for second sourcing? Probably not
a bad idea.
Gregg
|
| 429.7 | Not only Shuttle, but Titan too! | LDP::WEAVER | Laboratory Data Products | Mon May 09 1988 19:48 | 4 |
| The explosion affects all programs that use solid rocket motors,
including the Titan series.
-Dave
|
| 429.8 | Ammonium perchlorate | STAR::HUGHES | | Tue May 10 1988 09:41 | 13 |
| re .7
Titan, Scout, Delta, MX, Midgetman, Poseidon,.... Most current
solid propellant motors use ammonium perchlorate.
re .6
Making ammonium perchlorate is a long way from building shuttle
SRBs (I assume thats what you meant by second sourcing). There are
already a couple of companies that could, and would like to, second
source the SRBs.
gary
|
| 429.9 | The Soviets have similar problems as well | HYDRA::BIRO | | Wed May 18 1988 10:31 | 8 |
| NBC reported that a Blas has shut down the only Soviet plant making
SS-24 missle motors. The Soviet accident came just nine days after
the us one . It was estimated that it would take six months to
get back into production. One socure said that a US spy sat detected
the explosion on the night of May 12. the blast did not involve
any nuclear wareheads but did a lot a damage.
|