There were many citizens around the country who, on January 28, 1986, videotaped the live broadcast of the Challenger disaster. Those tape recordings still provide a valuable first-hand record of the launch, and for legal purposes they constitute prima facie evidence.

  NASA's system for releasing broadcast video is referred to as NASA Select. It can be switched instantaneously from one camera to another. Only the Cable News Network (CNN) carried the launch of Mission 51-L live, but the other networks rapidly aired taped reruns from the same NASA Select footage. I watched one of them on a four-inch TV at the western spaceport.

  A disturbing problem occurred prior to lift-off. NASA Select had switched from the roof of the Vehicle Assembly Building to a view from the south. At t-12 seconds, dense black smoke formed at the end of an extension arm. It was near the top of the left booster (Figures 1 and 2).

  After a view of the lift-off from east of the launch deck, NASA Select switched back to the distant view from the roof of the Vehicle Assembly Building. A southeast ground camera switched in at t+16 seconds, and it provided continuous coverage until just before the explosion. Soon after the shuttle had assumed its tail-down position for ascent, Mission Control announced a premature throttledown. The narrator then mentioned a scheduled throttledown to 65 percent.

  Passage through Mach 1 was not routine. Late shock effects extended to the shuttle's midbody (Figure 3). Flame bursts sporadically appeared on the right side of the tail (Figure 4).

  Houston normally announces passage through the region of maximum dynamic pressure (Max Q) before acknowledging throttleup. During Mission 51-L, however, there was never any mention of Max Q! Instead the narrator rattled off velocity, altitude, and downrange distance. Several uninterrupted seconds then elapsed, during which a lateral plume erupted from the area near the right side of the orbiter's tail (Figure 5). Finally, "engines throttling up" was heard; but it seemed evident to me that Mission Control had been apprehensive about something.

  NASA Select plainly revealed the origin of the orbiter plume, despite the view through the bright gases from the main engine exhaust. The plume was just forward of the main engine which is located nearest the tail. The onset occurred at about t+59 seconds (Figure 5), and the directed exhaust reached maximum length and thickness in about 0.8 second (Figure 6). A distinct orange coloration was evident along its lower edge. The plume was visible on NASA Select for seven or eight seconds. Nearby vibrations in the main engine bells were apparent (Figures 5 and 6).

  I had warned my oldest son Dan to expect the worst during the first launch from Pad B, so after work he reran his NASA Select recording with the television's brightness control at a low level. The reflections disappeared, but the orbiter plume remained! Dan's simple test furnished solid evidence of intense heat generation.

  Next the tail began to vibrate (Figure 7) and move to the south. As Houston announced "go at throttleup," the entire aft part of the orbiter became lost in an apparent gas fire (Figure 8). For a mission with a due-east profile, Challenger appeared to be traveling too far north.

  NASA Select suddenly switched to the Recording Optical Tracking Instrument (ROTI), a huge video camera at Cocoa Beach. The ROTI obscurely disclosed the source of the billowing gas cloud. It was coming from the base of the hydrogen tank (Figure 9). There was no sign of a 'burnthrough in the right booster,' later fictionalized by NASA and memorialized by the media.

  A second and a half later, at approximately t+73.1 seconds, raw hydrogen spilled back from the aft location where the left booster connects to the hydrogen tank (Figure 10). What had earlier been a raging hydrogen fire was quickly becoming an expansive fuel dump.

  At about 73.2 seconds after lift-off, two new fires preceded an explosion of the main fuel tank. A white to yellow fire in the orbiter's cargo bay was visibile first (Figures 11 and 12 - large arrows). One frame later, on the far side of the orbiter, NASA Select exposed a blast that created an orange fire near the tail (Figures 11 and 12 - small arrows).

  These fires were in the worst possible location, between the released hydrogen and the oxygen tank. Only two or three frames after the orbiter blasts, a light-green circle of fire formed above them (Figure 12 - top). It was located where the left booster connects to the oxygen tank!

  Then, for just over a second, the ROTI showed little more than a fiery blur of gray, white, yellow, and orange. The two tanks had exploded. Halfway through that short interval, a brilliant white object appeared (Figure 13). For just a few frames, part of it was visible against the sky. It was on the south side of the main fireball, which quickly enveloped the brightly ignited object.

  The boosters, crossed at their bases, were barely visible in the last frame shown from the ROTI (Figure 14 - large arrow). Below them, a bright orange cluster spun off to the right from the main fireball (Figure 14 - small arrow). Then NASA Select switched back to camera TV-3.

  "Once this explosion occurs, then you later see what appears to be the right SRB coming out of this cloud," said former Enterprise pilot Leo Krup, who helped Dan Rather narrate for CBS (Figure 15). "I assume it was the right one, because it looked like the left one was the one that exploded," Krup added.

  Two seconds after the appearance of the right booster, camera TV-3 disclosed an expanse of black fall-out below the front of the fireball (Figure 16). The area above it was dark orange.

  Next camera TV-3 picked up several vapor trails. All but one of the trails extended eerily downward behind smoldering orbiter debris. The newer, shorter, and higher trail was immediately below the big contrail from the right booster (Figure 17). It appeared that the new trail would parallel the upward path of the still propulsive right rocket. In other words, it looked as though a third missile had begun to climb out of the fireball.

  As orange flames began to shoot from the aft segment of the right booster (Figure 18), camera TV-3 began to record the scene with drastically reduced zoom. NASA Select switched back to the rooftop of the Vehicle Assembly Building just as things were getting interesting.

  Soon NASA Select returned to camera TV-3. When it did, the predicted continuation of the mysterious new vapor trail was evident (Figures 19 and 20). The right booster was making a flight correction to the north, but the smaller missile was continuing downrange along its initial trajectory. By then, all of the vapor trails behind and below it were streaming to the ocean.

  NASA Select utilized two additional cameras at approximately the time when Air Force Range Safety officers were sending a command to destroy the two boosters. The first camera revealed that the twin rockets had reassumed their pre-explosion positions (relative to each other) just prior to their destruction (Figure 21). The right rocket (arrow) had crossed back to the north side of the left rocket. The second camera picked up the destruction of the boosters by Range Safety ordnance (Figure 22).

  NASA has never acknowledged the most troublesome events from those cited above. The nation was put through hours of delay before Jesse Moore finally declared that NASA would base no conclusions on its own NASA Select footage. If this chapter has made you curious, you are in a better position to understand the true reasons for the Challenger disaster. A few good clues are invaluable to an understanding of what really happened at Kennedy Space Center (Kennedy) on the darkest day in space history.

Chapter 1 excerpted from THE BETRAYAL OF MISSION 51-L. Copyright © 2000 by John Thomas Maxson. All rights reserved. Originally printed in the United States of America.
No part of this chapter may be reproduced or retransmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission of the author. For information, E-mail support@mission51l.com.

Library of Congress Control Number: 00-134557
ISBN 0-9704036-0-7