Use of Asbestos Could Have Avert Challenger Disaster
The tragedy of the Challenger was that seven living representatives of the American pioneer tradition were smashed to earth by political cowardice and legal arrogance that destroyed the spaceship Challenger in the name of "Spaceship Earth."
Much has been written about the Challenger disaster and its causes. Attention has focused on the aft (bottom) field joint of the right solid rocket booster. The joint connected two sections of the booster; because they are joined after the fuel was added the joint could not be sealed or inspected from the inside. Instead the joint was sealed by a rubber O-ring, and there was a secondary O-ring in case the first failed. There were also a number of other components in the joint, including putty which was intended to protect the O-rings from direct contact with the hot exhaust gasses, and also act as a piston to pressurize the rings.
Because of an EPA ban on the use of asbestos, a non-asbestos containing putty was substituted which didn't have the insulating fire-retardant powers of asbestos. What the public doesn't realize is that it is probably asbestos and the ban on asbestos that caused the Challenger disaster. It wasn't the O-rings themselves that failed. It was the putty that held the O-rings in place. Up until that time, the time of the Challenger, that putty had had asbestos in it to strengthen it and make it fire retardant. When the asbestos was removed, it was the putty that gave way.
The astronauts would have no way of knowing that a 1977 Consumer Product Safety Commission ruling banning asbestos in certain paint products would have a tragic effect on the flight. NASA had used an "off the shelf" putty manufactured by the Fuller O'Brien Paint Company in San Francisco to help seal the field joints of the SRBs [solid rocket boosters] through the first ten missions. Fuller O'Brien, fearful of legal action because of the ban, stopped manufacturing the asbestos-based putty.
An excessive concern over the possible danger of asbestos in personal hair dryers led directly to the crash of the space shuttle Challenger and the deaths of its seven crew members. A 1977 ban on asbestos in hair dryers triggered a series of decisions that made unavailable the asbestos putty which had safely sealed the spaceship engines, and led directly to the crash.
Much has been written about the Challenger disaster and its causes. Attention has focused on the aft (bottom) field joint of the right solid rocket booster. The joint connected two sections of the booster; because they are joined after the fuel was added the joint could not be sealed or inspected from the inside. Instead the joint was sealed by a rubber O-ring, and there was a secondary O-ring in case the first failed. There were also a number of other components in the joint, including putty which was intended to protect the O-rings from direct contact with the hot exhaust gasses, and also act as a piston to pressurize the rings.
Because of an EPA ban on the use of asbestos, a non-asbestos containing putty was substituted which didn't have the insulating fire-retardant powers of asbestos. What the public doesn't realize is that it is probably asbestos and the ban on asbestos that caused the Challenger disaster. It wasn't the O-rings themselves that failed. It was the putty that held the O-rings in place. Up until that time, the time of the Challenger, that putty had had asbestos in it to strengthen it and make it fire retardant. When the asbestos was removed, it was the putty that gave way.
The astronauts would have no way of knowing that a 1977 Consumer Product Safety Commission ruling banning asbestos in certain paint products would have a tragic effect on the flight. NASA had used an "off the shelf" putty manufactured by the Fuller O'Brien Paint Company in San Francisco to help seal the field joints of the SRBs [solid rocket boosters] through the first ten missions. Fuller O'Brien, fearful of legal action because of the ban, stopped manufacturing the asbestos-based putty.
An excessive concern over the possible danger of asbestos in personal hair dryers led directly to the crash of the space shuttle Challenger and the deaths of its seven crew members. A 1977 ban on asbestos in hair dryers triggered a series of decisions that made unavailable the asbestos putty which had safely sealed the spaceship engines, and led directly to the crash.
