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Records of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident

Records of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident

National Archives and Records Administration 8601 Adelphi Road College Park, Maryland 20740-6001

REFERENCE COPY OF TECHNICAL DOCUMENTATION FOR ACCESSIONED ELECTRONIC RECORDS (Copied: February 15, 2005)

Public Use Version Of Records Of The Presidential Commission On The Challenger Accident

Record Group 220 Records of Temporary Committees, Commission, and Boards

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has been accepting electronic records into its holdings since the early 1970s. Technical documentation has accompanied each transfer of electronic records. The documentation is necessary to understand the meaning of the digitized bits of infoffi1ation within the electronic records.

Over the decades, NARA has had different procedures for compiling technical documentation into an organized unit for researchers, and different expectations regarding the content and extent of any NARA-produced portions of the documentation. Consequently, the structure, organization and contents of the documentation reflect the procedures in place when the technical documentation was compiled and arranged and may inClude out of date addresses, telephone numbers, or other items ofunrevised information related to the agency that created or transferred the documentation and electronic records to NARA, to the NARA unit that processed these materials, or to the physical media of the electronic records files.

In creating the reference copy of the documentation package, NARA staff have selected from the technical and/or supplementary documentation available for this series or file(s). We have annotated or highlighted the table of contents that follows to indicate which portioIls of the full documentation for this series or file are included in this reference copy of documentation. Any materials not included here are available upon request. Any user notes prepared after the table of contents was prepared appear before the table of contents. Tl1is documentation will differ in structure, organization and contents from technical documentation for other series or files of accessioned electronic records. The readability aJ.1d visual quality are also variable.

NARA 's web site is http://www.l1ara.gov Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

\Vashingtorl, DC 20408

3-220-86-007

DOCUMENTATION

PUBLIC USE VERSION OF RECORDS OF THE PRESIDENTIAL COMMISSION ON THE SPACE SHUTTLE CHALLENGER ACCIDENT

Record Group 220 Records of Temporary Committees, commission, and Boards

Reference Copy #1 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction......

Statement on Information Withheld from Public Use Versions of datasets...... •..

Abstracts ......

Documentation, datasets 1-6: File Descriptions for Challenger Accident JURIS Files in Backoff Format...... •••.••...... •••...... •• e· •••••••

Documentation, dataset 7: Challenger Accident INQUIRE System Documentation: I. System Overview......

Appendices:

Appendix A. Commission Activities: An Overview•.•.•••.....• (excerpt from the report by the Commission)

Appendix B. Commission Documentation System: An Overview.•• (excerpt from the report by the Commission)

Appendix C. Table 1: Commission Investigative Interviews ••• (excerpt from the report by the Commission)

Appendix D. Table 2: Commission Panel Sessions ••.••••..•.•. (excerpt from the report by the Commission)

Appendix E. Executive Order 12456, dated February 3, 1986, which established the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident ..••••••.••••••.••.••.••••••.• (from the report by the Commission)

Appendix F. Information for Researchers: Records of the Presidential Conwission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident ......

Appendix G. List of Challenger Commission Interview Transcripts ...... (handout from the Judicial, Fiscal and Social. Branch of the National Archives)

Sample Dumps ..•..••••....••••••..•...••••...•••••••..•••••••

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Reference Copy #3 .~.J: Washington, DC20408

March 1, 1988 Records of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger: The process used to identify information withheld on the public use version of the electronic records

The National Archives and Records Administration has in its custody textual records, microfilm, motion pictures and electronic records of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident. The Judicial, Fiscal and Social Branch (NNFJ) has custody of the textual records of the Commission. The electronic records in the custody of the Machine-readable Branch (NNSR) consist of the following seven datasets: an INQUIRE Index and six JURIS text files (Affidavits, Hearings, Digests, Reports, Interviews, and Meetings). Access to the records of the Commission is governed by the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, 5 USC 552. As part of processing procedures, a review of the textual records was conducted by archivists in NNFJ. The same information which NNFJ identified during processing to be withheld based on various exemptions of FOIA will be withheld in the public use version of the electronic records. The comparison of the textual records and the dump of the electronic records in order to identify the information to be withheld was performed by an archivist from NNFJ and NNSR working as a team. This comparison also provided an opportunity to determine the extent of overlap between the records of both branches. There are considerably more documents in the textual records than in the electronic records. For instance, the textual records include large series of reports (there are only seven documents in the Reports file) and correspondence. These records are not available in electronic form. Most of the documents in the electronic records are available in textual form in NNFJ. The textual records do not contain two panel sessions that are in the Meetings file on the tape. The abstracts of the hearing transcripts contained in the Digests file are also not available in the textual records. There are twelve interviews which are in the textual records, but are not in the Interviews file on the tape. More specific information about these exceptions is included in the documentation package prepared by NNSR for the electronic records.

Reference Copy #4 ,\iational Arcbil't's (l1lt1 Record~ Administration Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

The comparison of the records produced a list of line numbers containing information to be withheld for use in the preparation of the public use versions of the electronic files. Two datasets, the INQUIRE index dataset and the Affidavits dataset, have no information withheld. The lines of texts in the remaining datasets that have been withheld are as follows:

1. Hearings dataset Authority- Freedom of Information Act, 5 USC 552 (b)(2) Withheld- Lines T00005790 to T00005805 2. Meetings dataset Authority- Freedom of Information Act, 5 USC 552 (b)(3) Withheld- Lines T00030851 to T0003l293 3. Digests dataset Authority- Freedom of Information Act, 5 USC 552 (b)(2) Withheld- Lines T00001862 to T00002037. 4. Interviews dataset Authority- Freedom of Information Act, 5 USC 552 (b)(6) Freedom of Information Act, 5 USC 552 (b)(7)(C) Withheld- interviewee line numbers date Schell T00027109 - T00027ll3 3/25/86 Bush, Bill T00036994 T00037128 3/26/86 Sertile T00042001 T00042002 3/26/86 Cook T0006l065 T0006l067 3/28/86 Uptagrafft T00062377 T00062382 4/01/86 Butler T00064747 T00064748 4/02/86 Smith T00067265 T00067266 4/02/86 Heinritze T00068097 T00068098 4/02/86 Nunnelley T0007l832 T0007l833 4/02/86 Batte T00072999 T00073000 4/02/86 Walker T00080206 T00080207 4/03/86 Bunn T0008l679 T0008l680 4/03/86 Hardy T00084754 T00084755 4/03/86 Carr T00087393 (same) 4/03/86 Thompson T00092283 T00092284 4/04/86 Mann T00092296 T00093268 4/04/86 Parker T00093301 T00093302 4/04/86 Coates TOOl02947 TOOl02949 4/10/86 Houston TOOl045l3 TOOl045l4 4/10/86 .. .. TOOl0452l (same) 4/10/86 Maxson TOOl08688 TOOl1014l 4/10/86 Austen T00130l36 (same) 4/22/86 Jones T00133843 T00134l83 4/23/86 Weisner T00137600 T001382l9 4/24/86 Williams T00138737 T00138739 4/28/86 Dankoff T00144075 T00144076 5/15/86

Reference Copy #5 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

5. Reports dataset Authority­ Freedom of Information Act, 5 USC 552 (b)(3) Withheld- Lines T00005392 to T00007690. Researchers have the right to file a formal request under the Freedom of Information Act, as amended, to obtain access to information withheld from these records. The request must be submitted in writing and addressed to the Assistant Archivist for the National Archives, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC 20408. This statement is intended to reflect the coordination of the application of FOIA exemptions between the two branches; to define the process by which the withheld information was identified; and to complete the documentation package describing the electronic records of the Commission. These concurrences represent agreement on the process used and on the information identified. Concurrences: £~ c.J W:~ dat07Q.< ·7, '''hi Chief, Machi~e-~adabie:Bianch

~~u~Jl and Social Br~:;~ y~

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INTRODUCTION

The records of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident were transferred to the Judicial, Fiscal, and Social Branch (NNFJ) of the National Archives and Records Administration when the work of the Commission was completed. The National Archives has custody of the textual, microfilm, machine-readable, and motion picture materials created by or received by the COlnmission. This documentation package pertains to the machine-readable records of the Commission consisting of seven text files. These seven files are maintained by the Machine-readable Branch (NNSR) of the National Archives.

There is considerable overlap among the textual, microfilm and machine-readable materials. Identification of restricted information in the files was accomplished by a close comparison of the textual records, which had been screened for restrictions by NNFJ, and the machine-readable files. Materials that are available in the textual records but not in machine-readable form, or that are available in machine-readable form but not in the textual records are indicated on the abstracts for individual files to the extent that this information is known. Appendix C is a list of interviews conducted by the Commission which is annotated to reflect those interviews which are not available in the interviews file.

The seven files have been copied by NNSR onto one reel in the following order:

File 1 - Hearings File 2 - Affidavits File 3 - Meetings File 4 - Digests File 5 - Interviews File 6 - Reports File 7 - Index

File 2 and File 7 contain no restricted information. The other five files contain information that has been withheld as indicated on the restriction statement.

Portions of the Report of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger are appended to this documentation package. The complete report is available from NNSR and from NNFJ. Additional information about the records of the Commission available from the National Archives is contained in Appendix E.

Technical Note

The files have been copied onto a 9 track tape, density 6250 bpi, are encoded in EBCDIC, and have standard labels. Users should be aware that JURIS files cannot be properly translated to ASCII, as some of the (EBCDIC) characters have no ASCII equivalent.

Reference Copy #7 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

EXPLANATION OF EXEMPTIONS

The Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552), as amended, provides for making information in executive branch records available to the public unless it comes within specific categories of matters that may be exempted from public disclosure. Subject to exemption from public disclosure are:

(b)(l) all matters that are (A) specifically authorized under criteria established by an Executive order to be kept secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy and (B) are in fact properly classified pursuant to such Executive order. (b)(2) all matters related solely to the internal personnel rules and practices of an agency.

(b)(3) all matters specifically exempted from disclosure by statute (other than section 552b of this title), provided that such statute (A) requires that the matters be withheld from the public in such a manner as to leave no discretion on the issue, or (B) establishes particular criteria for withholding or refers to particular types of matters to be withheld.

(b)(4) trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person and privileged or confidential.

(b)(5) inter-agency or intra-agency memorandums or letters which would not be available by law to a party other than an agency in litigation with the agency.

(b)(6) personnel and medical files and similar files the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. (b)(7) records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes, but only to the extent that the prouuction of such law enforcement records or information (a) could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings, (b) would deprive a person of a right to a fair trial or an impartial

Reference Copy #8 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

adjudication, (c) could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, (d) could reasonably be expected to disclose the identity of a confidential source, including a State, local, or foreign agency or authority or any private institution which furnished information on a confidential basis, and, in the case of a record or information compiled by a criminal law enforcement authority in the course of a criminal investigation, or by an agency conducting a lawful national security intelligence investigation, information furnished by a confidential source, (e) would disclose techniques and procedures for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions, or would disclose guidelines for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions if such disclosure could reasonably be expected to risk circumvention of the law, or (f) could reasonably be expected to endanger the life or physical safety of any individual.

(b)(8) information contained in or related to examination, operating, or condition reports prepared by, on behalf of, or for the use of an agency responsible for the regulation or supervision of financial institutions.

(b)(9) geological and geophysical information and data, including maps, concerning wells.

STATUTES FREQUENTLY CITED AS AUTHORITIES FOR DELETIONS UNDER EXEMPTION b3

Rule 6(e) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure - Grand Jury Information (GJ)

26 U.S.C. Section 6103 - Internal Revenue Code (IRS)

44 U.S.C. Sections 2107 and 2108(c)

50 U.S.C. Section 403 (d)(3)

Reference Copy #9 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

Abstract

Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident. Hearings Transcripts File [machine readable text fi1e]./ created by Civil Division, Office of Litigation Support, Department of Justice --Washington: Commission [producer], 1986/Washington: National Archives and Records Administration [distributor].

PROVENANCE: This file was created by the Civil Division, Office of Litigation, Department of Justice for the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident and received by the National Archives and Records Administration from the Commission.

TYPE OF FILE: Full-text JURIS file. The unit of observation is the transcript of each hearing. The JURIS system was developed by the Department of Justice for retrieval of full-text information. It provided for searchers by word or phrase. The National Archives does not have the JURIS software.

UNIVERSE DESCRIPTION: The universe is the transcript of 62 hearings conducted by the Commission.

SUBJECT MATTER DESCRIPTION: This file consists of transcripts of hearings conducted by the Commission. The file appears to contain the text of all of the published hearings but this has not been verified.

GEOGRAPHIC COVERAGE: There are no geographic indicators.

TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION:

FILE STRUCTURE: Fixed length.

FILE SIZE: 69,719 records, 62 transcripts of hearings. ( of these records have had information withheld)

FILE SORT SEQUENCE: The documents were entered in accession number order. The accession number contains the last digit in the year (i.e. 6); a three digit date identifier and a three digit document identifier.

REFERENCE MATERIALS: Documentation pertaining to the file consisting of a restriction statement, an introduction, "File descriptions for Challenger Accident JURIS Files in Backoff Format"; appendices including excerpts from the report by the Commission and a narrative describing the records of the Commission in the National Archives; and a sample dump of the file.

Reference Copy #10 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

RELATED PRINTED REPORTS: Report of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident and the published hearings available from the Judicial, Fiscal and Social Branch of the National Archives.

RELATED MACHINE READABLE DATA FILES: There are 5 other JURIS full -text files for the Co~nission: affidavits, meetings, digests, interviews,and reports; and an INQUIRE index file for the Commission.

DESCRIPTORS: CHALLENGER; SPACE SHUTTLE; NASA.

RESTRICTIONS ON USE: Some lines of text have been withheld under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 USC 552 (b)(3). See restriction statement for specific restrictions.

FILE AVAILABILITY: A public use version of this file will be made available by:

Machine Readable Branch National Archives and Records Administration Washington, DC 20408 Phone: (202) 523-6771

Reference Copy #11 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

Abstract

Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident. Affidavits Text File [machine readable text file]./ created by Civil Division, Office of Litigation Support, Department of Justice --Washington: Commission [producer], 1986/Washington: National Archives and Records Administration [distributor].

PROVENANCE: This file was created by the Civil Division, Office of Litigation, Department of Justice for the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident and received by the National Archives and Records Administration from the Co~nission.

TYPE OF FILE: Full-text JURIS file. The unit of observation is each affidavit. The JURIS system was developed by the Department of Justice for retrieval of full-text information. It provided for searchers by word or phrase. The National Archives does not have the JURIS software.

UNIVERSE DESCRIPTION: The universe is text of 3 affidavits taken by the Commission•.

SUBJECT MATTER DESCRIPTION: There are affidavits from: -James C. Harrington, Deputy Director (later Director) of the Spacelab Program at NASA Headquarters. -Norman Terrell, Associate Administrator for Policy, NASA. -Shirley M. Green, Director of Public Affairs, Office of External Relations, NASA The textual records do not contain a segregated affidavits making it difficult to determine what is not in this file. These are many more than 3 affidavits in the textual records.

GEOGRAPHIC COVERAGE: There are no geographic indicators.

TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION:

FILE STRUCTURE: Fixed length.

FILE SIZE: 176 records, 3 affidavits.

FILE SORT SEQUENCE: The documents were entered in accession number order. The accession number contains the last digit in the year (i.e. 6); a three digit date identifier and a three digit document identifier.

Reference Copy #12 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

REFERENCE MATERIALS: Documentation pertaining to the file consisting of a restriction statement, an introduction, "File descriptions for Challenger Accident JURIS Files in Backoff Format"; appendices including excerpts from the report by the Co~nission and a narrative describing the records of the Commission in the National Archives; and a sample dump of the file.

RELATED PRINTED REPORTS: Report of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident and the published hearings available from the Judicial, Fiscal and Social Branch of the National Archives.

RELATED MACHINE READABLE DATA FILES: There are 5 other JURIS full-text files for the Commission: hearings, meetings, digests, interviews, and reports; and an INQUIRE index file for the Commission.

DESCRIPTORS: CHALLENGER; SPACE SHUTTLE; NASA.

RESTRICTIONS ON USE: There are no restrictions on the information in this dataset.

FILE AVAILABILITY: This file is currently available from:

Machine Readable Branch National Archives and Records Administration Washington, DC 20408 Phone: (202) 523-6771

Reference Copy #13 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

Abstract

______Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident. Meetings Transcripts File [machine readable text file]./ created by Civil Division, Office of Litigation Support, Department of Justice --Washington: Commission [producer], 1986/Washington: National Archives and Records Administration [distributor].

PROVENANCE: This file was created by the Civil Division, Office of Litigation, Department of Justice for the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident and received by the National Archives and Records Administration from the Commission.

TYPE OF FILE: Full-text JURIS file. The unit of observation is the transcript of each meeting. The JURIS system was developed by the Department of Justice for retrieval of full-text information. It provided for searchers by word or phrase. The National Archives does not have the JURIS software.

UNIVERSE DESCRIPTION: The universe is the transcript of 54 panel meetings conducted by the Commission.

SUBJECT MATTER DESCRIPTION: The Meetings File corresponds to the panels series in the textual records. The documents were entered or were sorted in the file in chronological order by date of panel meeting. The textual documents are arranged by subcommittee and thereunder chronologically by date of panel meeting. The subcommittees of the Commission are:

Accident Analysis Panel Design, Development and Production Panel Pre-launch Activities Panel Mission Planning and Operations Panel

There is a section of the panel meetings which appears in the Meetings File on the tape, but not in the Panel Series of the textual records. This section includes:

Design, Development and Production Panel 3/5/86

There are two panel meetings which are in the textual records, but do not appear on the tape:

Design, Development and Production Panel 4/04/86 Mission Planning and Operations Panel 4/14/86

Reference Copy #14 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

GEOGRAPHIC COVERAGE: There are no geographic indicators.

TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION:

FILE STRUCTURE: Fixed-length.

FILE SIZE: 133,192 records, 54 transcripts of meetings. ( of these records have had information withheld)

FILE SORT SEQUENCE: The documents were entered in accession number order. The accession number contains the last digit in the year (i.e. 6); a three digit date identifier and a three digit document identifier.

REFERENCE MATERIALS: Documentation pertaining to the file consisting of a restriction statement, an introduction, "File desciiptions for Challenger Accident JURIS Files in Backoff Format"; appendices including excerpts from the report by the Commission and a narrative describing the records of the Commission in the National Archives; and a sample dump of the file.

RELATED PRINTED REPORTS: Report of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident and the published hearings available from the Judicial, Fiscal and Social Branch of the National Archives.

RELATED MACHINE READABLE DATA FILES: There are 5 other JURIS full -text files for the Commission: hearings, affidavits, digests, interviews, and reports; and an INQUIRE index file for the Commission.

DESCRIPTORS: CHALLENGER; SPACE SHUTTLE; NASA.

RESTRICTIONS ON USE: Some lines of text have been withheld under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 USC 552 (b)(3). See restriction statement for specific restrictions.

FILE AVAILABILITY: A public use version of this file will be made available by:

Machine Readable Branch National Archives and Records Administration Washington, DC 20408 Phone: (202) 523-6771

Reference Copy #15 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

Abstract

Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident. Digests Text File [machine readable text file]/created by Civil Division, Office of Litigation Support, Department of Justice --Washington: Commission [producer], 1986/ Washington: National Archives and Records Administration [distributor].

PROVENANCE: This file was created by the Civil Division, Office of Litigation, Department of Justice for the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident and received by the National Archives and Records Administration from the Commission.'

TYPE OF FILE: Full-text JURIS file. The unit of observation is the abstract for the published hearings. The JURIS system was developed by the Department of Justice for retrieval of full-text information. It provided for searchers by word or phrase. The National Archives does not have the JURIS software.

UNIVERSE DESCRIPTION: The universe is 48 abstracts of hearings conducted by the Commission.

SUBJECT MATTER DESCRIPTION: The file contains hearings digests which are abstracts of the published hearings. These digests are not available in the textual records. Each of the JURIS text files contain sequential document line numbers running along the left side of the text. This numbering systems break the document into sections starting with section 1. Each section contains a variable number of lines identified by a 2-digit decimal number following the section number (e.g. 00001.01 is equivalent to section 1, line 1). The abstracted information in the Digests file refers to these section numbers. There are 48 digests in this file and 68 documents in the Hearings Text File. Apparently not all of the hearings have digests but we have not determined which do not. There is no indication of why some hearings were abstracted and others were not.

GEOGRAPHIC COVERAGE: There are no geographic indicators.

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TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION:

FILE STRUCTURE: Fixed length.

FILE SIZE: 10,071 records, 48 digests. ( of these records have had information withheld)

FILE SORT SEQUENCE: The documents were entered in accession number order. The accession number contains the last digit in the year (i.e. 6); a three digit date identifier and a three digit document identifier.

REFERENCE MATERIALS: Documentation pertaining to the file consisting of a restriction statement, an introduction, "File descriptions for Challenger Accident JURIS Files in Backoff Format"; appendices including excerpts from the report by the Commission and a narrative describing the records of the Commission in the National Archives; and a sample dump of the file.

RELATED PRINTED REPORTS: Report of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident and the published hearings are available from the Judicial, Fiscal and Social Branch of the National Archives.

RELATED MACHINE READABLE DATA FILES: There are five other JURIS full-text files for the Commission: hearings, affidavits, meetings, interviews and reports; and an INQUIRE index file for the Commission.

DESCRIPTORS: CHALLENGER; SPACE SHUTTLE; NASA.

RESTRICTIONS ON USE: Some lines of text have been withheld under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 USC 552 (b)(3). See restriction statement for specific restrictions.

FILE AVAILABILITY: A public use version of this file will be made available by:

Machine Readable Branch National Archives and Records Administration Washington, DC 20408 Phone: (202) 523-6771

Reference Copy # 17 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

Abstract

______Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident. Interviews Transcripts File [machine readable text file]./ created by Civil Division, Office of Litigation Support, Department of Justice --Washington: Commission [producer], 1986/Washington: National Archives and Records Administration [distributor].

PROVENANCE: This file was created by the Civil Division, Office of Litigation, Department of Justice for the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident and received by the National Archives and Records Administration from the Commission.

TYPE OF FILE: Full-text JURIS file. The unit of observation is the transcript of each interview. The JURIS system was developed by the Department of Justice for retrieval of full-text information. It provided for searchers by words or phrase. The National Archives does not the JURIS· software.

UNIVERSE DESCRIPTION: The universe is the transcripts of 160 interviews conducted by the Commission.

SUBJECT MATTER DESCRIPTION: Transcripts of the interviews were entered or sorted in chronological order by date of interview in the Interviews File. The Interviews Series of the textual records are arranged by the institution that the interviewee represents and thereunder alphabetically by name of interviewee. There are representatives from the following institutions:

I. Marshall Space Flight Center II. Morton-Thiokol III. NASA Headquarters IV. Rockwell V. Miscellaneous VI. Johnson Space Flight Center VII. Kennedy Space Center

There are 12 interviews which are not in the Interviews File on the tape, but which are in the textual records:

name date institution reEresented Wiley Bunn 4/17/86 Marshall Space Flight Center William Horton 3/27/86 " " " " Alvie Hicks 3/26/86 Morton-Thiokol Edward McIntosh 4/02/86 " " Irving Davids 4/04/86 NASA Headquarters James Fanseen 6/02/86 " " Hans Mark 4/09/86 " "

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name date institution reEresented Arnold Aldrich/ 4/08/86 Miscellaneous Richard Kohrs Richard Colonna 4/25/86 Johnson Space Center Jerry Griffin 4/25/86 " " B.J. McCarthy 4/15/86 " " Dick Smith 5/27/86 Kennedy Space Center

The date of the last interview in the Interviews File the tape is May 15, 1986. Data entry of the transcripts seems to have stopped at this point. That explains the absence of the Fanseen and Smith interviews. The Moore interview begins at line T00134l83 and is repeated beginning at line T00134679.

GEOGRAPHIC COVERAGE: There are no geographic indicators.

TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION:

FILE STRUCTURE: Fixed length.

FILE -SIZE: 146,400 records, 160 interview transcripts. ( of these records have had information withheld)

FILE SORT SEQUENCE: The documents were entered in accession number order. The accession number contains the last digit in the year (i.e. 6); a three digit date identifier and a three digit document identifier.

REFERENCE MATERIALS: Documentation pertaining to the file consisting of a restriction statement, an introduction, "File descriptions for Challenger Accident JURIS Files in Backoff Format"; appendices including excerpts from the report by the Co~~ission and a narrative describing the records of the Commission in the National Archives; and a sample dump of the file.

RELATED PRINTED REPORTS: ReEort of the Presidential Commission on the SEace Shuttle Challenger Accident and the published hearings available from the Judicial, Fiscal and Social Branch of the National Archives.

RELATED MACHINE READABLE DATA FILES: There are 5 other JURIS full-text files for the Commission: hearings, affidavits, meetings, digests, and reports and an INQUIRE index file for the Commission.

DESCRIPTORS: CHALLENGER; SPACE SHUTTLE; NASA.

Reference Copy #19 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

RESTRICTIONS ON USE: Some lines of text have been withheld under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 USC 552 (b)(6) and (b)(7)(C). See restriction statement for specific restrictions.

FILE AVAILABILITY: A public use version of this file will be made available by:

Machine Readable Branch National Archives and Records Administration Washington, DC 20408 Phone: (202) 523-6771

Reference Copy #20 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

Abstract

Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident. Reports Text File [machine readable text file]./ created by Civil Division, Office of Litigation Support, Department of Justice --Washington: Commission [producer], 1986/ Washington: National Archives and Records Administration [distributor].

PROVENANCE: This file was created by the Civil Division, Office of Litigation, Department of Justice for the Presidential Co~nission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident and received by the National Archives and Records Administration from the Commission.

TYPE OF FILE: Full-text JURIS file. The unit of observation is each report. The JURIS system was developed by the Department of Justice for retrieval of full-text information. It provided for searchers by word or phrase. The National Archives does not have the JURIS software.

UNIVERSE DESCRIPTION: The universe is 7 reports received by the Commission.

SUBJECT MATTER DESCRIPTION: There are only 7 reports in the database. NNFJ has 148 boxes of technical reports which were submitted to the Commission. The Reports which appear on the tape are:

Title Space Shuttle Range Safety Hazards Analysis, Wiggins Co., July 1981. Technical Report No. 81-1329. By James B. Baeker.

rest'd Space Shuttle/Centaur Probability Estimates. USAF. December, 1983.

Review of Safety Analysis of Galileo and Solar-Polar Missions. Louis Ullian. Review..•by the Interagency Nuclear Safety Review Panel, Launch Abort Subpanel.

Space Shuttle Risk Assessment. MSFC. November, 1984.

Evaluation of Wiggins and USAF Probability and Hazard Analyses of Space Shuttle. Dept. of Energy/Sandia. December, 1984.

Space Shuttle Launch Abort Subpanel Report. Louis Ullian. May, 1985.

Presentation from Dr. Ullian at MSFL on 4/17/86.

Reference Copy #21 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

GEOGRAPHIC COVERAGE: There are no geographic indicators.

TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION:

FILE STRUCTURE: Fixed length.

FILE SIZE: 15,230 records, 7 reports. ( of these records have had information withheld)

FILE SORT SEQUENCE: The documents were entered in accession number order. The accession number contains the last digit in the year (i.e. 6); a three digit date identifier and a three digit document identifier.

REFERENCE MATERIALS: Documentation pertaining to the file consisting of a restriction statement, an introduction, "File descriptions for Challenger Accident JURIS Files in Backoff Format"; appendices including excerpts from the report by the Commission and a narrative describing the records of the Commission in the National Archives; and a sample dump of the file.

RELATED PRINTED REPORTS: Report of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident and the published hearings are available from the Judicial, Fiscal and Social Branch of the National Archives.

RELATED MACHINE READABLE DATA FILES: There are 5 other JURIS full-text files for the Commission: hearings, affidavits, meetings, digests, and interviews; an INQUIRE index file for the Commission.

DESCRIPTORS: CHALLENGER; SPACE SHUTTLE; NASA.

RESTRICTIONS ON USE: Some lines of text have been withheld under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 USC 552 (b)(3). See restriction statement for specific restrictions.

FILE AVAILABILITY: A public use version of this file will be made available by:

Machine Readable Branch National Archives and Records Administration Washington, DC 20408 Phone: (202) 523-6771

Reference Copy #22 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

Abstract

Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident. INQUIRE index. [machine readable text fi1e]/ created by Civil Division, Office of Litigation Support, Department of Justice --Washington: Commission [producer], 1986/ Washington: National Archives and Records Administration [distributor].

PROVENANCE: This file was created by the Civil Division, Office of Litigation, Department of Justice for the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident and received by the National Archives and Records Administration from the Commission.

TYPE OF FILE: INQUIRE index file. The unit of observation is the individual documents created by or received by the Commission. The INQUIRE system was developed by the Department of Justice for rapid retrieval and review of the index information. The National Archives does not have the INQUIRE software.

UNIVERSE DESCRIPTION: The universe is 7,186 index entries for documents created by or received by the Commission that were microfilmed by the Commission documents Control Center established by the Office of Litigation Support.

SUBJECT MATTER DESCRIPTION: The index contains bibliographic information (document title and date, names and organizations of people mentioned in the documents); control information (PC IIPre1iminary Contro1 11 numbers, microfilm numbers, and other identification information); and subject information (a six-character identifier from a IIsubject 1istll prepared for the Commission). The index information was added to the full-text files and loaded into the computer data base.

GEOGRAPHIC COVERAGE: There are no geographic identifiers.

TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION:

FILE STRUCTURE: Fixed length.

FILE SIZE: 284,136 records, 7,186 index entries.

FILE SORT SEQUENCE: Chronological.

REFERENCE MATERIALS: Documentation pertaining to the file consisting of a restriction statement, an introduction, IIDocumentation relating to the INQUIRE Indexll; appendices including excerpts from the report by the Commission and a narrative describing the records of the Commission in the National Archives; and a sample dump of the file.

Reference Copy #23 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

RELATED PRINTED REPORTS: Report of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident and the published hearings are available from the Judicial, Fiscal and Social Branch of the National Archives, (202) 523-3089.

RELATED MACHINE READABLE DATA FILES: There are six JURIS fu11­ text files from the Commission: hearings, interviews, digests, affidavits, meetings and reports.

DESCRIPTORS: CHALLENGER; SPACE SHUTTLE; NASA.

RESTRICTIONS ON USE: There are no restrictions on the information in this dataset.

FILE AVAILABILITY: This file is currently available from:

Machine Readable Branch National Archives and Records Administration Washington, DC 20408 Phone: (202) 523-6771

Reference Copy #24 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

FILE DESCRIPTIONS FOR CHALLENGER ACCIDENT JURIS FILES IN BACKOFF FORMAT

One tape delivered to the Machine Readable section of the National Archives contains the Juris files of documents relating to the Challenger Accident. There is one tape file for each of the six Juris files as follows:

Justice Computer Service tape volume serial number: 018791 Tape file Juris Description Juris Record seq no file no doc cnt count ------1 1206 Hearings 62 , 69719 2 1209 Affidavits 3 176 3 1210 Meetings 54 133192 4 1211 Digests 48 10071 5 1212 Interviews 160 146400 6 1213 Reports 7 15320

Tape characteristics are as follows: 9 track, 6250 BPI, EBCDIC; Standard labels; Logical record length = 80;' Blocksize = 8000.

Files are in the Juris Backoff format and may be directly input to the Juris Concordance program. The Backoff format is described on the attached page.

',. J

Reference Copy #25 Reproduced at National Archiv~s and Records Administration

JURIS BACKOFF FORMAT

A Juris file is a set of documents. Each document consists of not only text but other fields, such as date, which can be searched independent from the text. The Juris backoff format is the same as the Juris input format. Each document is represented as a series of records of length 80 characters in a sequential file. Column 72 of each record contains the card type. The card­ type identifies the field of the document that the record is associated with. In this Juris file collection the card types and fields are as follows: Card type Field 1 Accession Number (YDDD9990) 2 Date (YYMMDD) 3 Time 4 Witness 5 Commission Member T Text of document 7 File or Title Within a document the records are sorted by card type in the order of the above list. The sequence of documents in the file is by increasing Accession number. Accession number is a unique identifier assigned to the document. In this Juris file collection the format is ~DDD9990. "999" is a unique sequence number assigned the document. "Y" is the last digit of the year in the date field. "DDD" is calculated from the date month and day as follows: DDD = (MM - 1) * 31 + DD • Each text line has a line prefix containing the page and line location of the line in the source document. Blank lines are not stored in Juris.

Reference Copy #26 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration 60370210 100000001 860206 200000002 09:50 AM 300000003 GRAHAM, DR. WILLIAM R.i NASA 400000004 ROGERS, WILLIAM P. 500000005 ARMSTRONG, NEIL A. 500000006 RIDE, DR. SALLY 500000007 WALKER, DR. ARTHUR 500000008 ACHESON, DAVID C. 500000009 FEYNMAN, DR. RICHARD 500000010 KUTYNA, MAJOR GENERAL DONALD 500000011 HOTZ, ROBERT 500000012 RUMMEL, ROBERT 500000013 WHEELON, DR. ALBERT 500000014 <00001.01> PRESIDENTIAL COMMISSION ON T00000015 <00001.02> SPACE SHUTTLE CHALLENGER ACCIDENT T00000016 <00001.03> T00000017 <00001.04> Thursday, February 6, 1986 T00000018 <00001.05> T00000019 <00001.06> National Academy of Sciences T00000020 <00001.07> Auditorium T00000021 <00001.08> 2100 Constitution Avenue, N.W. T00000022 <00001.09> Washington, D. C. T00000023 <00001.10> The Presidential Commission met, pursuant to T00000024 <00001.11> Presidential Executive Order, at 9:50 o'clock a.m .• T00000025 <00001.12> PRESENT: T00000026 <00001.13> WILLIAM P. ROGERS, Chairman T00000027 <00001.14> NEIL A. ARMSTRONG T00000028 <00001.15> DR. SALLY RIDE T00000029 <00001.16> DR. ALBERT WHEELON T00000030 <00001.17> ROBERT RUMMEL T00000031 <00001.18> DR. ARTHUR WALKER T00000032 <00001.19> RICHARD FEYNMAN T00000033 <00001.20> ROBERT HOTZ T00000034 <00001.21> DAVID C. ACHESON T00000035 <00001.22> MAJOR GENERAL DONALD KUTYNA T00000036 <00002.01> PRO C E E DIN G S T00000037 . <00002.02> CHAIRMAN ROGERS: Ladies and gentlemen, I now T00000038 1<00002.03> would like to call this first meeting of the T00000039 . <00002.04> Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger T00000040 <00002.05> Accident to order. T00000041 <00002.06> I want to make just a couple of preliminary T00000042 <00002.07> remarks. Ask you know, this Commission was appointed by T00000043 <00002.08> the President on Monday, and because of the time frame T00000044 <00002.09> within which we are working, we wanted to start it as T00000045 <00002.10> expeditiously as possible, and members of the Commission T00000046 <00002.11> have been very accommodating and have agreed to come to T00000047 <00002.12> Washington yesterday. T00000048 <00002.13> We had a preliminary get together to discuss T00000049 <00002.14> our plans~ and where we were to go based upon the T00000050 <00002.15> Executive Order, and we have with the cooperation on T00000051 <00002.16> NASA and the White House and other officials, been able T00000052 <00002.17> to set up this meeting for this morning. The purpose of T00000053 <00002.18> the meeting this morning is to be brought up to date on T00000054 <00002.19> the events that have occurred since the accident, T00000055 <00002.20> principally by officials from NASA. They have been very T00000056 <00002.21> cooperative and have been working closely with us, and T00000057 <00002.22> we are obviously going to rely in large part on the T00000058 <00002.23> investigations that they have conducted and will co~duct T00000059

Reference Copy #27 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration <00002.24> in the future. T00000060 <00002.25> On the other hand, as we said when the T00000061 <00003.01> President announced the appointment of the Commission, 100000062 <00003.02> we have our own responsibilities. We can seek other T00000063 <00003.03> evidence, get any other information we may desire, and 100000064 '<00003.04> the NASA officials have been, as I say, very cooperative T00000065 <00003.05> in that respect. T00000066 <00003.06> I would like to, by way of a beginning, refer T00000067 <00003.07> to the Executive Order that created the Commission T00000068 <00003.08> because we want to stick very closely to the T00000069 <00003.09> instructions that we received from the President, and I 100000070 <00003.10> will just read briefly the important part of that T00000071 <00003.11> Executive Order. T00000072 <00003.12> It says "The Commission shall investigate the T00000073 <00003.13> accident of the Space Shuttle Challenger which occurred T00000074 <00003.14> on January 28, 1986, and the Commission shall:" T00000075 <00003.15> "(1) Review the circumstances surrounding the T00000076 <00003.16> accident to establish the probable cause or causes of T00000077 <00003.17> the accident; and T00000078 <00003.18> "(2) Develop recommendations for corrective or T00000079 <00003.19> other action based upon the Commision's findings and 100000080 <00003.20> determinations." 100000081 <00003.21> "The Commission shall submit its final report T00000082 <00003.22> to the President and to the Administrator of the T00000083 <00003.23> National Aeronautics and Space Administration within 120 100000084 <00003.24> days of the date of this Order." T00000085 <00003.25> So our first task, it seems to me, and I think T00000086 <00004.01> other member of the Commission, is to deal with, one, T00000087 <00004.02> review the circumstances surrounding the accident to 100000088 <00004.03> establish the probable cause or causes of the accident. T00000089 <00004.04> Now, with that opening statement, keeping in T00000090 <00004.05> mind that that is our purpose this morning, to be T00000091 <00004.06> brought up to date on the events that have occurred T00000092 <00004.07> since the accident, we will calIon NASA officials, and T00000093 <00004.08> I guess the first witness is Dr. Graham. 100000094 <00004.09> Doctor, I will ask the Clerk to swear you in. T00000095 <00004.10> THE CLERK: Do you solemnly swear the T00000096 <00004.11> testimony you are about to give will be the truth, the T00000097 ;<00004.12> whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you T00000098 . <00004.13> God? T00000099 <00004.14> DR. GRAHAM: I do. T00000100 <00005.01> TESTIMONY OF DR. WILLIAM R. GRAHAM, ACTING T00000101 <00005.02> ADMINISTRATOR, NATIONAL AERONAUTICAL AND T00000102 <00005.03> SPACE ADMINISTRATION T00000103 <00005.04> DR. GRAHAM: Mr. Chairman, members of the T00000104 <00005.05> Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident, T00000105 <00005.06> NASA welcomes your role in considering and reviewing the T00000106 <00005.07> facts and circumstances surrounding the accident of the T00000107 <00005.08> Space Shuttle Challenger. T00000108 <0000S.09> NASA continues to analyze the system design T00000109 <00005.10> and data, and as we do, you can be certain that NASA T00000110 <0000S.11> will provide you with its complete and total T00000111 <0000S.12> cooperation. Along with the President, I look forward T00000112 <0000S.13> to receiving your report and to the resumption of space T00000113 <0000S.14> flight with our national Space Shuttle System. 100000114 <0000S.1S> I would like to introduce now Mr. Jesse Moore, T00000115 <0000S.16> who is NASA's Associate Administrator for Space flight T00000116 <00005.17> and also the Chairman of NASA's S1-L Data Design T00000117 <0000S.18> Analysis Test Task Force. He will conduct the T00000118

Reference Copy #28 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration <00005.19> briefing. T00000119 <00005.20> Thank you. T00000120 <00005.21> THE CLERK: Do you solemnly swear the T00000121 <00005.22> testimony you are about to give will be the truth, the T00000122 <00005.23> whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you T00000123 <00005.24> God? T00000124 <00005.25> MR. MOORE: I do. T00000125 CHALLENGER COMMISSION HEARINGS 700000126 60370220 100000127 860206 200000128 09:50 AM 300000129 MOORE, JESSE W.i NASA 400000130 ROGERS, WILLIAM P. 500000131 ARMSTRONG, NEIL A. 500000132 RIDE, DR. SALLY 500000133 WALKER, DR. ARTHUR 500000134 ACHESON, DAVID C. 500000135 FEYNMAN, DR. RICHARD 500000136 KUTYNA, MAJOR GENERAL DONALD 500000137 HOTZ, ROBERT 500000138 RUMMEL, ROBERT 500000139 WHEELON, DR. ALBERT 500000140 <00006.01> TESTIMONY OF JESSE W. MOORE, ASSOCIATE T00000141 <00006.02> ADMINISTRATOR FOR SPACE FLIGHT. NATIONAL T00000142 <00006.03> AERONAUTICAL AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION, AND T00000143 <00006.04> CHAIRMAN, 51-L DATA DESIGN ANALYSIS TEST T00000144 <00006.05> TASK FORCE T00000145 <00006.06> MR. MOORE: Mr. Chairman, members of the T00000146 <00006.07> Commission. we are here today before you to discuss the T00000147 <00006.08> Space Shuttle Challenger accident and to talk to you T00000148 <00006.09> about where we stand today in terms of our analysis that T00000149 <00006.10> we have done so far as a result of that accident, and T00000150 <00006.11> supporting me here today are various members of the NASA T00000151 <00006.12> centers involved, as well as member of the Astronaut T00000152 <00006.13> Office down at the Johnson Space Center. T00000153 <00006.14> I would like to say that we tried, in T00000154 <00006.15> preparing this document for you, to put it together to T00000155 , <00006.16> give you a sequence of how NASA goes about getting ready T00000156 ~<00006.17> for a flight, what some of the background associated T00000157 '<00006.18> with the Space Shuttle System is, and then, finally, T00000158 <00006.19> tell you where we are with respect to the overall T00000159 <00006.20> investigation that we are currently working on right T00000160 <00006.21> now. T00000161 <00006.22> We will have to apologize because we probably T00000162 <00006.23> have some acronyms in our document here that may be kind T00000163 <00006.24> of difficult. Some of the charts that may come on the T00000164 <00006.25> television screens may be difficult to read, but we have T00000165 <00007.01> tried to put together the best set of information we T00000166 <00007.02> could in the time available to do it. T00000167 <00007.03> I would like to now proceed with the agenda, T00000168 <00007.04> please. T00000169 <00007.05> I plan to cover the overview. and then I would T00000170 <00007.06> ask various members involved in the Space Shuttle System T00000171 <00007.07> to cover respective parts of the Shuttle, and I will T00000172 <00007.08> start out by asking Arnold Aldrich, who is the Manager T00000173 <00007.09> of the National Space Transportation Program Office at T00000174 <00007.10> the Johnson Space Center to talk about the orbiter T0000017 5 <00007.11> system as well as to give you some background on the T00000176 <00007.12> Shuttle and overall performance, and then I will ca~l T00000177

Reference Copy #29 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

DOCUMENTATION, DATASETS 7

Reference Copy #30 Washington, DC20408

DOCUMENTATION FILE 7

Reference Copy #31 .V(/liollal Arcbin:'s lIlId Record,' AtillliJlistmti()JI Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

~1 it~i

r:71 .:.. •..i.t

CHALLENGER ACCIDENT

INQUIRE SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION

Prepared for

U. S. Department of Justice Civil Division

.:' ·f~ .~ . : . ~ ~.-'-

CACI, Inc. - Commercial 3030 Clarendon Blvd. Arlington, Va. 22201

~.: ., i July 1986

., ..•.~ ii .... -,;._ ...­

,:<~eference Copy #32 .... ", .~...~ Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. System Overview

1. Data Base Description...... 1

2. Field Definition Table...... 2

3. Description of the Data Elements...... 5

II. Operating Environment

1. Description of User IDs...... 41 2. Disk Profiles...... 42

3. VSAM Space Allocations...... 44

III. CMS File Descriptions and Listings

1. File System Schematics...... 59 2. EXEC Files...... 64 3. Macro Library...... 66

4. COPY Fi 1e 5 • • • • • • • • • . • • • . • . . • • . . • • . • . • • • • . • • . . 67

Reference Copy #33 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

DATA BASE DESCRIPTION

The Challenger Inquire data base was created to serve the needs of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident. Easy storage and retrieval of the large collection of documents gathered by the investigators required the use of a data base management system. Since the litigation support office of the U. S. Department of Justice was experienced in this work, the Commission asked Justice to supervise the creation of the data base. The data base management system used at the Justice Data Center is INQUIRE, a product of Infodata Systems Inc. CACI, Inc., one of the contractors used by Justice, was brought in to do the microfilming, blowback (making plain paper copies from microfilm), coding, keying, loading, data retrieval and other support operations.

The Inquire data base created for the Challeng~r project, called CHALLN in the computer files, is bibliographic. That is, cross-referencing information such as dates, names, titles and -/rD·,;;.-: . _ ~l subject categories is included, rather than the full text of the documents. Copies of the documents themselves are stored on microfilm. The document numbers in the data base refer to the reel and frame numbers in the microfilm collection. This document explains how the facilities at Justice Data Center are used to access, maintain and use the data base, and describes its principal features.

1 li]Reference Copy #34 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

FIELD DEFINITION TABLE

The information coded for each document is stored in units called fields. These include the document's number, date, type and title; the author's name, other mentioned names, and subject categories. For a description of all the fields, see the "Data Elements" section of this manual. INQUIRE fields are classified or typed according to their characteristics. An information field can be described by more than one of the characteristics listed below. Fields are typed as:

Alpha Field - An alpha field consists of letters only. Character (Alpha­ - A character (alpha-numeric) field Numeric) Field consists of both letters and numbers. Fixed Length Field - The number of characters or positions is the same for each fixed length field, regardless of the number of characters in the data. If the data contains 8 characters and the field is a fixed length of la, two spaces or blanks will be stored at the end of the 8 characters, for a total length of 10. Keyed or Prefixed Field - Keyed or prefixed fields are indexed to provide the user faster response time in searches. Non-Keyed Field Any data field which is not keyed is classified as a non-keyed field. These fields may also be used in searches, but response time will be slower. Numeric Field - A numeric field consists of numbers only; no letters or special characters (such as punctuation) are permitted. Repeating Field - A repeating field may contain more than one entry. For example, a ,')" .. 1]~ ..:. document may have more than one Author or more than one Commission Source. A document may have only one date designated as the document

2 '.31feference Copy #35 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

date (date of creation). The same document may have multiple authors. Thus the Authors Field is a repeating field and the Document Date Field is a scalar (non-repeating) field. Scalar Field - A scalar field may contain no more than one entry. For example, only one date may be designated as the Document Date (date of creation). Variable Length Field - A variable length field consists of the number of characters actually stored in the field and is equal to the number of characters in the data. There is a limit to the number of characters the field may contain.

The characteristics of each field are summarized in the field definition table on the following pages. The abbreviations are explained below. LEN - length of the printed field in characters RPTS - the number of entries in a repeating field if fixed; if variable, "V" plus maximum number CHAR - character format for printing data NUM - numeric format for printing data VAR character print format, variable length PRE - prefixed or keyed field NB - data printed on more than one line is broken at the end of the line even in the middle of a word I - integer data DR - print dates in MM/DD/YY format B - data printed on more than one line is broken between words SUBF - subfield BASE - base field, which may contain one or more subfields POS - column position on the page of print n, Reference Copy #36 3 ~~~ Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

[IATABASE 'CHALLN FIELD - PRINT - STOREll INTER-FIELll NAME FORMAT K£Y t"ORM LEN -RPTS- LENGTH -TYPE- RELAT I UNSH r ~·S DOCNO CHAR PRE NB 14 14 BASE DNPREFIX CHAR NB 3 3 SUBF PUS 1 TO 3 «(IOCNO ) DNREEL NliM I 3 3 SUllF F'OS 4 TU 6(DllCNO ) DNREELC CHAR NB 3 :5 SUBF F'OS 4 fO 6( (IOCNO ) DNFRAMEF NUM I 4 4 SUBF f'OS 7 TU 10(DOCNO ) DNFRAMFC CHAR NB 4 4 SUBF PUS 7 TO 10(DOCNO ) I 4 4 SUBF POS 11 TO 14 ([IUCNO ) DNFRAMEL NUM ) DNFRAMLC CHAR NB 4 4 SUBF POS 11 TO 14(1l0CNU DOCDATEX CHAR NB 7 7 BASE DOC[IATEC CHAR PRE NB 6 6 SUBF POS 1 TO 6 (DOC[IATEX) DOC DATE NUM DR B 6 SUBF POS 1 TO 6 (DOCIIA'fE.X) DOCYYMH CHAR PRE NB 4 4 SUBF POS 1 TO 4(DOCDATEX) DOC EST CHAR NI! 1 1 SUBF POS 7 TO 7 (lIOCDATEX) PCONTROL CHAR PRE NI! a a DOCPACK CHAR III! a a BASE PKFRAMEF NUH I 4 4 SUBF POS TO 4(DOCPACK PKFRAMEL NUM I 4 4 SUBF f'OS 5 TO 8( DOCf'ACK MARGIN CHAR NB 1 1 DOCCOND CHAR NB 3 V 7 3 DOCCONDX VAR NB 20 V 7 20 DECODE FROM DOCCOND DOCTYPE CHAR PRE NB 3 V 6 3 DOCTYPEX VAR NB 35 V 6 35 llECODE FROH DOCTYPE RECDATEC CHAR PRE NB 6 6 BASE RECDATE NUM DR a 6 SUBF POS 1 TO 6(RI::CDATEC) RECYYMM CHAR PRE NI! 4 4 SUBF POS 1 TO 4(RE.ClIA1EC) CMSOURCE CHAR PRE NI! 15 V 20 15 FORI1PUI! CHAR PRE NB 15 V 20 15 FILENAME VAR B 150 150 DOCTITLE VAR B 150 150 COMMENT VAR II 150 150 MTDATEC CHAR PRE NB 6 V 10 6 BASE MTDATE NUM DR a v 10 6 SUBF POS 1 TO 6(MTDATEC I1TYYMM CHAR PRE NB 4 V 10 4 SUBF f'OS 1 TO 4(MTD~:1E.C MTPARTY CHAR NB 40 V 100 40 BASE MTNAME CHAR PRE NB 15 V 100 15 SUBF f'OS 1 TO l~(Mn'ARTY MTORG CHAR PRE NB 25 V 100 2S SUBF F'US 16 TO 40(MTPARTY SUBTERM CHAR PRE NB 6 V 100 6 SUBTERMX VAR NB 54 V 100 54 DECODE FROM SUBTERM AUTHOR CHAR NIe 40 V 100 40 BASE ""'-:j'.::J AUTHNAME CHAR PRE NB 15 V 100 15 SUBF POS 1 TO 15(AUfHOR SUBF POS 16 TO 40 (AU'I HOR ..... ~;.i AUTHORG CHAR PRE NB' 25 V 100 25 ADDRESSE CHAR NB 40 V 100 40 BASE ADDRNAME CHAR PRE NB 15 V 100 15 SUBF f'OS 1 TO 15 (AIIDRESSE) ADDRORG CHAF: PRE NB 25 V 100 25 SUBF PUS 16 TO 40(A[lDRt::SSE) COPYEE CHAF: NIl 40 V 100 40 BASE COPYNAME CHAR PRE NB 15 V 100 15 SUBF POS 1 TO lS(COPYEE COPYORG CHAR PRE NI! 2:) V 100 25 SUBF F'OS 16 TO 40(COF'YEE MENTION CHAR NB 40 V 100 40 BASE MENTNAME CHAR PRE NB 15 V 100 15 SUBF f'OS 1 TO lS(ME.NTION ;':1 25 V 100 25 SUBF POS 16 )'0 40(MEN'fION ·.:.z.....:..J MENTORG CHAR PRE NB QA CHAR PF:E NB e B USAGE CHAR PRE NB 15 V 20 15 r~_:j NASATASK CHAR PF:E NI! 5 V 20 5 i .:~ LOADDTEX CHAR PRE NB 6 6 BASE 6(LOA[I[lTE.X) t ~~:J LOA[IDATE NUH [lR B 6 SUBF POS TU LOADYYMI1 CHAR PRE NB 4 4 SUBF F'OS 1'0 4 (LOA[ltIT£X) UPD[IATEX CHAR PRE ~IB 6 6 [lASE 6 (UF'[I[If,TEX) f.-·.i:_~ UPDATE NUH [IF: B 6 SUBF F'OS fO UPVYHrI CHAR F'RE NB 4 4 SUE:F F'OS 1 TU 4 (UnlllA'1 E.X) .,,~' ~ .. [lUMMI CHAF: NE< 20 V 20 20 DUMM2 CHHF: liB 15 15 [IUMM3 ~'M;; B 150 150 k~ I:[,(S I) .:.F: F'RE B, 35 34 BLT , ., "fj., I TEMNO NUM f'RE I 8 BLT 1.F I XEI! CHAR Nt< 79 79 E:L T H;1 j ' .. 4 '_:]Reference Copy #37

\~ Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

DATA ELEMENTS

DOCNO - Document Number Fixed Length 14 Positions (1-14) Character Scalar Keyed

This field has six subfields. These are:

DNPREFIX - Document Reel ID prefix DNPREFIX is the first three characters of the field. In the Challenger data base it is always SSC. 3 Positions (1-3) Character Subfield of DOCNO Not keyed

DNREEL - Reel Number DNREEL is the second three positions of the DOCNO field (Positions 4-6). It is the microfilm reel number on which the document is located. It is a right-justified, zero­ filled field. That is, a document from reel 1 is coded as 001 and not 1. 3 Positions (4-6) Numeric Subfield of DOCNO Not keyed

DNFRAMEF - First Frame (numeric) DNFRAMEF is the next four positions in the DOCNO field (positions 7-10). This is a numeric subfield, and as such it can be used with the subfield DNFRAMEL to perform calculations and derive page counts. It is the microfilm frame number taken from the first page of a document. 4 Positions (7-10) Sub field of DOCNO Not keyed ..... <:! DNFRAMFC - First Frame (character) ~:~~ DNFRAMFC utilizes the same positions as DNFRAMEF but has a character value as oppossed to a numeric value. It's position in the DOCNO field is the same as DNFRAMEF however, because it is a character field, it will allow the user to include this sub-field in a report. It is the microfilm .-.11 frame number taken from the first page of a document • .~,~ 4 Positions (7-10) Subfield of DOCNO ..ri1 Not keyed ~--. '··:1 ~ ..:~

f.~ Reference Copy #38 5 '.~.'~ Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

DNFRAMEL - Last Frame (numeric) DNFRAMEL is the last four positions of the document number (positions 11-14), formatted as a numeric field. It can be used in conjunction with DNFRAMEF to derive page counts. DNFRAMEL is the microfilm frame number taken from the last page of a document. If a document were coded as a one page document, the value for DNFRAMEL is the same as DNFRAMEF. 4 Positions (11-14) Subfie1d of nOCNO Not keyed

DNFRAMLC - Last Frame (character) DNFRAMLC is the last four positions of the document number (positions 11-14), formatted as a character field. It is used in conjunction with DNFRAMEC for printing purposes. DNFRAMLC is the microfilm frame number taken from the last page of a document. If a document were coded as a one page document, the value for DNFRAMLC is the same as DNFRAMFC. 4 Positions (11-14) Subfie1d of nOCNO Not keyed

The Document Number Field contains the unique number assigned during the microfilming process which identifies the document's location in the microfilm collection. This number controls the document coding, storage, and retrieval processes.

Every page in the working set of the Challenger Document Collection has its own unique identifying number located along the right edge of the page. The Film Number of a page is part of the camera board information added during the microfilming of these

6 IIReference Copy #39 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration documents. On the blowback (hard copy) document page, the Film Number appears in the following format:

Example: _5__5_ ~ ~ ~ --L­ ~ _2__1__1_ i1I (Prefix) (Reel #) (Frame #) ~

"':~~ 7 -~~Reference Copy #40 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

DOCDATEX - Document Date Fixed length 7 Positions (1-7) Character Scalar Not Keyed

DOCDATEX has three subfields and one decode field. These are:

DOCDATEC - Year Month Day Format (YYMMDD) DOCDATEC is a character, keyed field, formatted in YYMMDD order. Note that it includes positions 1-6 only and does not include Position 7, the "Estimated" character position. The seventh position, E, is part of the parent field, DOCDATEX and it constitutes its own subfield. DOCDATEC is faster to retrieve on than DOCDATEX because it is a keyed field. On the other hand, searches for date ranges or against the "Estimated" character cannot be performed in this field. 6 Positions (1-6) Character Subfie1d of DOCDATEX Keyed

DOCDATE - Date MM/DD/YY DOCDATE, on the other hand, is a decode field. That is, it takes the stored data (YYMMDD) and displays it in a different format. For example, DOCDATE displays March 30, 1986, as as 3/30/86. DOCDATEC displays the same date as 860330. It is useful in producing reports as most users are more accustomed to seeing dates in month-day-year order. This subfield cannot be used to search but can be used to sort information found. 6 Positions (1-6) Numeric Decode Field from DOCDATEX Subfield of DOCDATEX Not keyed

DOCYYMM - Date Year Month (YYMM) DOCYYMM contains positions 1-4 of the parent field (the year and month). It can be used with other occurrences of DOCYYMM to derive time spans. 4 Positions (1-4) "~ Numeric "ij Sub DOCDATEX Keyed '~

IIr, .•• ""n~ DOGEST ­ Date Estimated (E) DOCEST is the seventh, optional character in the DOCDATEX field. If it is filled, it is always an E to indicate that a date, or a portion of a date, has been estimated. 1 Position (7) Character Subfield of DOCDATEX Not keyed '--,,]",:w,. Reference Copy #41 ,f <.1:;' 8 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

I The Document Date Field contains the date the document was created. It was entered in a year-month-day format. For example, the date March 10, 1986 was entered as 860310. The document date can be the publication or copyright date. If the document did not bear a publication or copyright date, the following dates were substituted in this priority order: signature date, preparation date, approval date, typist date, transmittal date, receipt date. When information for the year or the month or the day of the month was missing from the document, the corresponding section of the field was filled with the number 9.

Examples: December, 1972 (no day available) = 721299 17th of an illegible month, 1969 = 699917 1978 (no month or day available) = 789999 April 10th (year illegible) = 990410 28th (no year or month available) = 999928

The suffix (position 7) indicates that the Document Analyst estimated the document date. When the DOCDATE is the actual date of the document, the seventh position is blank.

The seasons appear as:

Season Month Entry

WINTER 01 SPRING 04 SUMMER 07 FALL 10

Examples: Winter, 1970 = 700199 Summer, 1983 = 830799 one date follow Document Dates for documents that bear more than these guidelines: 1. For documents with inclusive dates, the earliest date was entered. Example: January/February 1975 = 750199 Spring/Summer 1967 = 670499 "":',4 d 2. For meeting minutes, contracts, and agreements with varying signature dates, the latest date was used . •-.,.1 , c.:t , :,j Note that a contract must have the signatures of the parties to be ~Jt ~,,: enforceable. Therefore, dates associated with attorney or notary signatures were not entered unless the document contained no other dates.

\ ,Reference Copy #42 "-:1 9 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

3. When versions of a document contained an original date and a revision date, the latest revision was entered as the Document Date.

4. If no date was available, the Analyst tried to infer the date from reading the document.

Example: A document dated 1975, estimated month of June = 750699E

A document with no actual date but the year was estimated as 1980 = 809999E

If the opening sentence of an undated handwritten note referred to "last week's August board meeting" ~'.q~ and the year 1985 was legible on a "date received" ~/~~1 .,.~#~ stamp, the date was entered as: 850899E .

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Reference Copy #43 !--,.;J 10 -!.j Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

PCONTROL - Preliminary Control Number (PC + 6 digits) Fixed Length 8 Positions (1-8) Character Scalar Keyed

The Preliminary Control Number Field contains a unique document control number which acts as a locator for hard copies at the Shuttle Support Center. A unique, sequential computer generated number was applied to each page of each document prior to microfilming. The number is on a pressure-sensitive label in the lower right-hand corner of each page.

The Preliminary Control Number for a document is the preliminary control number on the first page of the document. Note that, since PC numbers were applied to each page of each document and since documents generally consist of more than one page, not all PC numbers have been entered into the data base--only those appearing on the first page of a document.

An example of a Preliminary Control Number is:

PC014553

11 Reference Copy #44 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration DOCPACK - Document Package Fixed Length 8 Positions (1-8) Numeric Scalar Not keyed

The Document Package field has two subfields. These are:

PKFRAMEF - Document Package First Frame PKFRAMEF is the first four (positions 1-4) of the DOCPACK field. Since it is a numeric field, it can be used in conjunction with PKFRAMEL to derive page counts for document packages. 4 Positions (1-4) • Numeric Subfie1d of DOCPACK • Not Keyed PKFRAMEL - Document Package Last Frame PKFRAMEL is the last four (positions 5-8) of the DOCPACK field. Since it is a numeric field, it can be used in conjunction with PKFRAMEF to derive page counts for I document packages. 4 Positions (5-8) Numeric Subfield of DOCPACK • Not Keyed The Document Package Field identifies the microfilm frame range for a complete document package. A document package is two or more documents intended to be read and considered together. Two examples of a document package are (1) a cover memo that transmits a referenced report; or (2) a report with an earlier report attached as an appendix. This field contains the first frame number of the first document in the package (the master document) and the last I frame number of the last page of the last attached document. Note that each document within a package has been entered separately and is also separately retrievable. However, once retrieved, a document can be considered in its original context with the aid of the Document Package Field.

An example of an entry in the Document Package Field is:

15541577

Frame 1554 is the first frame of the master document. Frame 1577 is the last frame of the last attachment to I that master document. I

12 I.eference Copy #45 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

Definitions: A Master document is usually (1) a cover letter or cover memo that transmits one or more documents attached to it, or (2) a primary document, such as a report, which has appendices or attached supporting material that can stand on their own as documents.

An Attachment document is a document which is transmitted by another document such as a cover letter or a cover memo.

The analysts were guided by the following procedures in determining Master-Attachment relations:

a. The words "Attachments" or "Enclosures" were taken as indications that the following documents might be attachments.

b. References to attachments or enclosures in the document text indicated to the Analyst that the document transmitted an attachment (the report or article). Example: A sentence in the text stated "Enclosed is the report you requested", or "See attached article."

c. The appearance of the words "Attachment 1", or "Enclosures", etc., usually on the bottom or top right hand corner of the page were also taken as indications that the following documents might be attachments.

d. In general, for 2 documents to be designated Master and Attachment, they had to have been sent and received simultaneously. For example, the sender had to have put the cover letter and the monthly report into the same envelope and the receiver had to have received that cover letter and monthly report at the same time.

e. If a cover document without an attachment was encountered, the Analyst then:

1. Entered AMS (Attachment Missing) in the Document Condition (DOCCOND) Field •

2. Left the Document Package Field blank.

3. If a Master document indicated there were more than one attachment, and at least one of those attachments were missing, AMS (Attachment Missing) was . ,...­ entered in the Document Condition field. Also, the . ~~~ Document Package field was completed using the first frame of the master first document and the last frame of the last attachment present. ~..J.. ,\': .~

13 leference Copy #46 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

The following example illustrates the relation between the DOCPACK field and the DOCNO field.

Cover memo "A" and attached reports "B" and "c" appear together as one "attached group" covering frames SSC 017 0001 to SSC 017 0050.

Cover memo "A" is at frame 0001-0005; Report "B" is at frames 0006-0025; and Report "c" is at frames 0026-0050. Cover memo "A" and reports "B" and ..c.. are entered in the data base as three separate documents using the Document Package Field as follows:

Cover Memo "A" (first record)

DOCNO = SSC01700010005 DOCPACK = 00010050

Report "B" (second record)

DOCNO = SSCOl700060025 DOCPACK = 00010050 Report "C" (third record)

DOCNO = SSC01700260050 DOCPACK = 00010050

NOTE: The DOCPACK field value is the same for all three records •

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'1., 1 ] Reference Copy #47 14 ] Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration ·.~ ~ MARGIN ­ Marginalia Fixed Length 1 Position (YIN) Character Scalar Not Keyed

The Marginalia Field is a "Yes-No" field used to indicate whether there are any additional comments or annotations, apart from the text, on a document. Every document carries an entry in the Marginalia field. Marginalia can be handwritten or typed. This might be useful if there were two identical documents with different reel and frame numbers with the only difference being, one contains marginalia and one does not contain marginalia. Preliminary Control Numbers, stamps, and signatures are not considered Marginalia•

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15 •:.:, Reference Copy #48 .. ~ .._:.1 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration DOCCOND - Document Condition Fixed Length 3 Positions (1-3) Character Repeating (7 maximum) Not keyed

The Document Condition field has one subfield. It is:

DOCCONDX DOCCONDX is a decode field. A decode field is useful in formatting reports when a user may want to display a recognizable word instead of a code. For example, the decoded value for the document condition code ILL is ILLEGIBLE. Variable length (20 Positions Maximum) Variable Character (Field character length may vary. For example the decode length of .,.,. DRAFT (DR) is 2, while the decode 0.:A length of ILLEGIBLE (ILL) is 3.) Decode Field from DOCCOND ~ Repeating (7 maximum) '. .~

The Document Condition Field describes the physical condition of the document, such as its legibility.

The following field values were entered in this field:

DEFINITION

AMS ATTACHMENT MISSING--indicates that one or more attachments appeared to be missing from the primary (or "master") document. (See Pages F-10 through F-12.)

. DRF DRAFT--indicates that the words "DRAFT" or "PRELIMINARY" were written, typed, or stamped on the face of the document • .] DUP DUPLICATE--indicates that the document was found to be an "exact duplicate" (stroke-for-stroke copy) of the text and marginalia of a previously coded document. The data base record for the previously coded document is amended by (1) entering DUP in the Document Condtion field; and (2) indicating the first frame of the duplicate document in the Comments field. The duplicate document itself is not entered into the data base.

16 ,-lReference Copy #49 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

DEFINITION

HND HANDWRITTEN--indicates that a document was written by hand (usually notes, draft letters and memos, and pre-printed forms which have been completed in handwriting). This Document Condition does not indicate that the document merely contained handwriting such as a signature, or that handwritten annotations exist.

ILL ILLEGIBLE--indicates that a document contained pages, or portions of pages of such poor quality that they could not be read even by careful examination.

INC INCOMPLETE--indicates that an entire page of a document was missing.

MSK MASKING--indicates that a document appeared to have been "doctored" by such devices as white corrective tape or white-out in order to shroud or block out information. This term also .~ includes official deletions of documents for

1~ security reasons.

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17 ,-1 Reference Copy #50 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

DOCTYPE - Document Type Fixed Length 3 Positions (1-3) Character Repeating (6 maximum) Keyed

The Document Type field has one subfie1d. It is:

DOCTYPEX ­ DOCTYPEX is a decode field. A decode field is useful in formatting reports when a user may want ~""'~1".'. to display a recognizable word instead of a code • jif~.;' . For purposes of retrieval, DOCTYPE is faster because it is a keyed field. For example, the decoded value for the document type code MEM is MEMORANDUM. Variable length (35 Positions Maximum) Variable Character Decode Field from DOCTYPE Repeating (6 maximum) Subfield of DOCTYPE Not keyed

The Document Type Field contains the codes which describe the .\.y' '~'. Au.."j. physical format (not condition) of the document (e.g., a memo or form). Each document is assigned at least one Document Type and many documents may have several Document Types.

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18 "'1 Reference Copy #51 ,'I Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

RECDATEC - Date Received Fixed length 6 Positions (1-6) Character Scalar Not Keyed

The Date Received field has two subfields. These are:

RECDATE - Received Date MM/DD/YY RECDATE is a searchable, decode field. That is, it takes the stored data (YYMMDD) and displays it in a different format. For example, RECDATEC displays March 30, 1986 as 860330. RECDATE displays the same date as 3/30/86. It is useful in producing reports as most users are more accustomed to seeing dates in month-day-year order. This subfield cannot be used to search but can be used to sort information found. 6 Positions (1-6) Numeric Decode Field from RECDATEC Subfield of RECDATEC Not keyed

RECYYMM - Received Date Year Month (YYMM) RECYYMM contains positions 1-4 of the parent field (the year and month). It can be used with other occurrences of RECYYMM to derive time spans. 4 Positions (1-4) Numeric ::~i Subfield of RECDATEC 3:~ Keyed

The Date Received Field contains the date the document was received at the Commission Office; or, if this is unknown, the date the document was microfilmed. For example, if a document was received by the Commission on February 24, 1986, the Date Received is entered as: 860224

":~JJ The date received or microfilmed was obtained from the "phrase t,~·~j label", an information strip photographed on the side of each document page during the microfilming process .

...."..,j'.. :­ .j.. When information for the year or the month or the day of the month was missing from the phrase label information, the corresponding section of the field was filled with the number 9. ':--::)......

19 11Reference Copy #52 -'-'/~1 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration CMSOURCE - Commission Source Fixed Length 15 Positions (1-15) Character Repeating (20 maximum) Keyed Field

The Commission Source Field captures the name of the Commissioner, the Investigator, and/or the Commission Panel that provided the document for the collection. The names in this field appear in last-name-comma-first-initial-middle-initial format. The value for this field was written in the microfilm phrase label.

If a particular Commissiner, Investigator, or Commission Panel was not known, the word "Presidential Commission" was entered in the Commission Source field.

An example of an entry for the Commission Source Field for document received from Commissioner Richard P. Feynman is: ... FEYNMAN,RP ri

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20 tmReference Copy #53 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

FORMPUB - Form Publication Number Fixed length 15 Positions (1-15) Character Repeating (20 maximum) Keyed

The Form/Publication Number Field captures the preprinted form or publication number on a document. Most Form/Publication Numbers identify specific NASA documents or specific Morton Thioko1 documents.

An example of an entry in the Form/Publication Number Field for a Kennedy Space Center work report form is: .11 J KSC29-240 Since this field can contain special characters (i.e., commas, dashes, and blank spaces) field values containing special characters must be enclosed in single quotes in search statements.

Note that a few Form/Publication Numbers exceeded the lS-character limit of the field. In this case, the Number's punctuation was deleted so the alpha-numeric characters could be entered in their entirety. c

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....,A. 21 Reference Copy #54 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

FILENAME - File Name Variable length 150 Positions Maximum Variable Character Scalar Not keyed

The File Name Field captures the microfilm phrase label information. For some documents, the phrase label information contains the name given to the original file folder in which the document was located. In other cases, when the Commission Office received loose documents which were not in file folders, the phrase label information is based on related subject groupings of the documents.

The following style guidelines were used in this field:

1. All punctuation was recorded. 2. Sl-L was always recorded as SIL. 3. All dates were recorded in the six-digit date format (yymmdd) • 4. All personal names were recorded in the last-name-comma­ initials format. 5. Applicable abbreviations were used. 6. The words THE, A, AN and ETC were not coded.

An example of an entry in the File Name Field is:

SHUTTLE LAUNCH COMMIT CRITERIA & BACKGROUND VOL. 1 OF 2

Since FILENAME is a variable length text field, the best way to retrieve on this field is to use the CONTAINS comparison. Furthermore, keep in mind that the vocabulary in this field is not controlled. Therefore, it is not a good field to search. It is more useful as a display field in a report to assist in the evaluation of a document record. Also, if a SCAN is conducted against a value containing a space, the value must be enclosed in o quotes.

22 Reference Copy #55 I Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration DOCTITLE - Document Title Variable length 150 Positions Maximum Variable Character Scalar I Not keyed The Document Title Field contains the title as it appeared on the document. For documents which had no title or an non-explanatory title, the Document Analyst created one; the letter "Z" in parentheses is recorded at the end of each created title. Dates were converted to YYMMDD format. Names were converted to the last-name-comma-first initial-middle initial format. All punctuation is maintained as shown.

Document titles include:

o The information which follows the words RE or SUBJECT o The formal name of a report, including its secondary headings o Any underlined, centered, or otherwise highlighted terms which appear at the top of the first page of a document

Many government and corporate forms have preprinted titles, in addition to a form number. The Document Title was coded as the name of the form followed by the Document Date and a capital Z in parentheses at the end of the created title:

INSPECTION REPORT 851208 (Z)

In addition to the above, the following style guidelines were used:

1. All punctuation was recorded. 2. sl-L was always recorded as slL. 3. All dates were recorded in the six-digit date format (yymmdd) • 4. All personal names were recorded in the last-name-comma­ initials format. 5. Applicable abbreviations were used. 6. The words THE, A, AN and ETC were not coded.

An example of an exact title entry in the Document Title Field is: (, ~j slL ASSESSMENT COLD O-RINGS

An example of a created title entry in the Document Title Field is:

PERSONAL DOCUMENTATION RE LAUNCH DECISION (Z)

23 ~ Reference Copy #56 :.; Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration Since DOCTITLE is a variable length text field, the best way to retrieve on this field is use the CONTAINS comparison. Furthermore, keep in mind that the vocabulary in this field is not controlled. Therefore, it is not a good field to search. It is more useful as a display field in a report to assist in the evaluation of a document record. Also, if a SCAN is conducted against a value containing a space or special character, the value must be enclosed in quotes.

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24 Reference Copy #57 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

COMMENT - Comments Variable length 150 Positions Maximum Variable Character Scalar Not keyed

The Comments Field has been reserved primarily for information about the document which may have affected the information recorded from the document. Document Analysts use this field to note such things as (1) the beginning frame number of an exact duplicate of the document being coded; (2) that certain data is inferred; and (3) that a specific document contains sensitive information and is not for public release.

The following style guidelines were used:

1. All punctuation was recorded. 2. 5l-L was always recorded as 5lL. 3. All dates were recorded in the six-digit date format (yymmdd) • 4. All personal names were recorded in the last-name-comma­ initials format. 5. Applicable abbreviations were used (See Appendix G). 6. The words THE, A, AN and ETC were not coded.

An example of an entry in the Comments Field for a document whose Author is inferred is: AU INFERRED

Since COMMENT is a variable length text field, the best way to retrieve on this field is use the CONTAINS comparison. Furthermore, keep in mind that the vocabulary in this field is not controlled. Therefore, it is not a good field to search. It is more useful as a display field in a report to assist in the evaluation of a document record. Also, if a SCAN is conducted against a value containing a space or special character, the value must be enclosed in quotes.

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.:~ Reference Copy #58 .. ,l Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

MTDATEC - Meeting Date Fixed length 6 Positions (1-6) Character Repeating (Maximum of 10 repeats) ':1 Keyed .J MTDATEC has two subfieldsj these are:

MTDATE - Meeting Date MM/DD/YY MTDATE takes the stored data (YYMMDD) and displays it in a different format. For example, MTDATEC ...... displays March 30, 1986 as 860330. MTDATE displays {i': the same date as 3/30/86, a form easily recognizable to users and especially useful in producing reports. This subfield cannot be used to search but can be used to sort information found • ...... :. 6 Positions (1-6) Numeric Decode Field from MTDATEC Subfield of MTDATEC Not keyed

MTYYMM - Meeting Date Year Month (YYMM) MTYYMM contains positions 1-4 of the parent field (the year and month). It can be used with other occurrences of MTYYMM to derive time spans. 4 Positions (1-4) Numeric ~1 Subfield of MTDATEC l Keyed

The Meeting Date Field contains the date or dates of meetings or telecons (telephone conference calls) referred to in the text of a 1 document. These are entered in YYMMDD format.

An example of an entry in the Meeting Date Field for a document 1 which refers to the NASA/Thiokol telecon on January 27, 1986 is: 860127

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26 Reference Copy #59 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

MTPARTY - Meeting Participant Fixed Length 40 positions (1-40) Character Repeating (100 maximum) Not keyed

The Meeting Participant has two subfields. These are:

MTNAME - Person who attended a meeting MTNAME contains the name of a person who attended a meeting. MTNAME is the first fifteen positions (1-15) of the MTPARTY field. Since it is a keyed field, FIND should be used to retrieve information from MTNAME. 15 Positions (1-15) Character Repeating (100 maximum) Subfield of MTPARTY Keyed

MTORG - Organization of person who attended a meeting MTORG contains the organizational affiliation of meeting participants. It is the last 25 positions (16-40) of the MTPARTY field. Since it is a keyed field, FIND should be used to retrieve information from MTORG. 25 Positions (16-40) Character Repeating (100 maximum) Subfield of MTPARTY Keyed

The Meeting Participant Field contains the name of each person (MTNAME) and/or organization (MTORG) that appears in the text of the document as a meeting or telecon participant. Names have been entered in the 1ast-name-comma-initials format.

In order for a person or an organization to be classified as a Participant, the document must contain an active reference to meeting or conferring for discussion for a specific purpose.

If a Participant's personal name appeared again in the document (for whatever reason) as an Addressee, Author, Copyee, or Mentioned Name, the name was coded again.

An example of an entry in the Meeting Participant Field is:

BOISJOLY,R % MTI

The Personal Name Authority List was used to verify spellings; the Organization Authority List was used to verify spellings and to standardize abbreviations of frequently encountered organization names.

_, Reference Copy #60 27 . \ it .:'" Reproduced at National Archives !ind Records Administration

Note that there will be variations in personal names, iriitials, and organization associated with personal names.

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:-" '1'.,~ _feference Copy #61 28 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

AUTHOR - Document Author Fixed Length 40 positions (1-40) Character Repeating (100 maximum) Not keyed

The Author field has two subfields. These are:

AUTHNAME - Person who created a document AUTHNAME contains the name of a person who authored a document. AUTHNAME is the first fifteen positions (1-15) of the AUTHOR field. Since it is a keyed field, FIND can be used to retrieve information from AUTHNAME. 15 Positions (1-15) Character Repeating (100 maximum) Subfield of AUTHOR Keyed

AUTHORG - Organization that created a document AUTHORG contains the organizational affiliation of an author. It is the last 25 positions (16-40) of the AUTHOR field. Since it is a keyed field, FIND can be used to retrieve information from AUTHORG. 25 Positions (16-40) Character Repeating (100 maximum) Subfield of AUTHOR Keyed

The Author Field contains the name of the person (AUTHNAME) and/or organization (AUTHORG) who generated a document. Names were entered in the last-name-comma-initials format.

An Author is the name of the person responsible for the intellectual content of the document. The Author's name is linked with an , organization, wherever possible. J The author may be a person who:

o writes, prepares, signs, approves, compiles, assists in, or edits a document; o delivers a speech; o is party to a contract or agreement; o appears on a radio or television program; o investigates an activity; o pays a check; or, o gives testimony.

,,,Reference Copy #62 29 ,:1 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

An example of an entry in the Author Field for a document generated by Allan McDonald of Morton Thiokol is:

MCDONALD,AJ % MIl

The Personal Name Authority List was used to verify spellings; the Organization Authority List was used to verify spellings and to standardize abbreviations of frequently encountered organization names.

30 1 1Reference Copy #63 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

ADDRESSEE - Document Addressee Fixed Length 40 positions (1-40) Character Repeating (100 maximum) Not keyed

The Addressee field has two subfields. These are:

ADDRNAME - Person who received a document ADDRNAME contains the name of a person who received a document. ADDRNAME is the first fifteen positions (1-15) of the ADDRESSEE field. Since it is a keyed field, FIND can be used to retrieve information from ADDRNAME. 15 Positions (1-15) Character Repeating (100 maximum) Subfield of ADDRESSEE Keyed

ADDRORG - Organization that received a document ADDRORG'contains the organizational affiliation of recipient of a document. It is the last 25 positions (16-40) of the ADDRESSEE field. Since it is a keyed field, FIND can be used to retrieve information from ADDRORG. 25 Positions (16-40) Character Repeating" (100 maximum) Subfield of ADDRESSEE Keyed

The Addressee Field contains the name of the person and/or organization to which a document was addressed. Names were entered in the last-name-comma-initials format.

The addressee may be a person and/or organization:

0 to whom a communication is addressed; 0 to whom a communication is addressed in care of (C/O); 0 to whom a check or invoice is addressed; or 0 for whom a report or financial statement is prepared.

An example of an entry in the Addressee Field for a document addressed to Lawrence Mulloy of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center I is: MULLOY,L % NASA MSFC 1 The Personal Name Authority List was used to verify spellings; the Organization Authority List was used to verify spellings and to 1 standardize abbreviations of fre.quently encountered organization J names.

31 l Reference Copy #64 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

COPYEE - Copyee Name(s) and Organization(s) Fixed Length 40 positions (1-40) Character Repeating (100 maximum) Not keyed

The Copyee field has two subfields. These are:

COPYNAME - Copyee Person COPYNAME: This subfield contains the name of a person to whom a copy of the document was directed. COPYNAME is the first fifteen positions (1-15) of the COPYEE field. Since it is a keyed field, FIND can be used to retrieve information from COPYNAME. 15 Positions (1-15) Character Repeating (100 maximum) Subfield of COPYEE Keyed

COPYORG - Copyee Organization COPYORG contains the organizational affiliation of a person to whom a copy of the document was directed. It is the last 25 positions (16-40) of the COPYEE field. Since it is a keyed field, FIND can be used to retrieve information from COPYORG. 25 Positions (16-40) Character Repeating (100 maximum) Subfield of COPYEE Keyed

The Copyee Field contains the name of each person and/or organization to which the document is indirectly addressed (via distribution lists, the designation "cc:", etc.). Names were entered in the last-name-comma-initials format.

Most of the Copyees are listed in the lower left corner of the last page of a document. However, occasionally, a distribution list may appear in the upper right corner of a document, usually without the designatio~s "cc" , "cy", or "bee".

Any name on a distribution list is a Copyee. Note that if the line "TO: Distribution" appears on a memo, and the distribution list ..x:~ follows, these names are captured as Copyees. An example of an entry in the Copyee Field for a Morton Thiokol document with the notation: cc: Robert Lund is:

LUND,RK % MIl

The Personal Name Authority List was used to verify spellings; the Organization Authority List was used to verify spellings and to standardize abbreviations of frequently encountered organization names.

::~,Reference Copy #65 32 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

MENTIONED - Mentioned Names Fixed Length 40 positions (1-40) Character Repeating (100 maximum) Not keyed

The Mentioned Name field has two subfields. These are: MENTNAME Copyee Person MENTNAME contains the name of a person who is mentioned in the text or marginalia of a document. MENTNAME is the first fifteen positions (1-15) of the MENTIONED field. Since it is a keyed field, FIND can be used to retrieve information from ~-.~ MENTNAME. ~:ii 15 Positions (1-15) Character Repeating (100 maximum) Subfield of MENTIONED Keyed

MENTORG - Copyee Organization MENTORG contains the name of an organization mentioned in the text or marginalia of a document. This organization mayor may not be linked with a personal name. It is the last 25 positions (16-40) of the MENTIONED field. Since it is a keyed field, -:5'" FIND can be used to retrieve information from . !l: MENTORG • It..~ 25 Positions (16-40) Character :'1f~ Repeating (100 maximum) :"i;.·~·r Subfield of MENTIONED Keyed

The Mentioned Name Field contains the name of a person and/or . organization mentioned in the text of the document or in a marginal ..'~- ..:.~' notation. Names were entered in the last-name-comma-initials ....~. format •

An example .of an entry in the Mentioned Name Field is:

DAVIS,BK % NASA KSC The Personal Name Authority List was used to verify spellings; the Organization Authority List was used to verify spellings and to standardize abbreviations of frequently encountered organization names.

,:::~ -;;;

33 ._ ;! Reference Copy #66 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

QA - Quality Assurance Fixed Length 8 Positions (1-8) Character Keyed

This field contains a unique number given the Document Coding Form after quality control of the coding was conducted. This number is used to track the DCF and its corresponding data base record throughout the remainder of the Challenger document processing pipeline. It is used for data base maintenance and for checking the accuracy of a data base record.

-r.-,j '; ;. ~;: --~~

..-.o;~ --~

,.;oJ • . ,;;'1

if.

,,~

~ ...... ~ 34 _ ~I Reference Copy #67

.~ •.. j Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

USAGE - Usage Fixed Length 15 Positions (1-15) Character Repeating (maximum of 20 repeats) Keyed

This field is used to record transcript exhibit numbers for hearings, interviews, meetings, and r The Shuttle Support Center supplied these exhibit numbers for specific documents.

These numbers are two digit numbers, with a leading zero if the number is less than 9 (e.g., 1 is recoded as 01). These will be cross-referenced to the JURIS transcript files. The file name .' ~;~il (hearing, interview, meeting, etc.), the witness name, the ~i1 transcript date, and the location are recorded in the FILENAME field. r~17:~ ~~

~f·~t.<,. Reference Copy #68 35 N-. ~ . • Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration SUBTERM - Subject Terms • Fixed Length 6 Positions Character Repeating (100 maximum) Table Edit Keyed

Decode Field

SUBTERMX - Decoded From SUBTERM Variable Length (54 Positions maximum) Alpha-Numeric Repeating (100 maximum)

Choosing A Subject Term

Subject Terms were entered whenever a document mentioned or discussed a particular, relevant subject. The most accurate Subject Term possible was entered; for example, a reference to Criticality lR items was entered as CR1300 Criticality lR rather than the more general Subject Term of CROOOI Critical Items.

However, when a document contained references to both general and specific Subject Terms in the same category (such as separate references to both the External Tank in general (ET2000) and to Tanking/Fueling the External Tank (ET2500), both Subject Terms were entered.

, Structure of the Subject Term Code and Categories ::...;.;. ,,~ . ,: .' The Subject Term Field contains 6-character codes for each subject I term referred to or discussed in a document. Each six-character code begins with two letters which identify the primary category in which the code is located. For example, all term codes relating to the External Tank begin with the letters ETj all term codes relating to data from the ground operations begin with the letters DG. ,7:; '<\ .~ The beginning two letters of each term code are then followed by 4 numerals. The more zeroes these 4 numerals contain, the more general is the subject term code to which they refer. For example, the following terms and codes demonstrate the subdivisions within the subject term category of SRMs/SRBs (SR3000):

-."".. " SR3000 SRMs/SRBs l SR3l00 Case/Case Segments SR3110 Joints SR3l11 Field Joints SR3112 Manufacturing Joints SR3113 Nozzle Joints SR3114 Flexing of Joints SR3115 Leak Check Port SR3l20 O-Rings SR3l2l Effect of Temperature/Resilience

]] Reference Copy #69 36 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

A decode field is one that thats the value that was entered in the data base and displays it in another form. The decode field subtermx is the English translation of the coded subject terms. For example, the decoded value for SR3110 is JOINTS .

.-..",;iI .~

-,j ~

·}t .~

.:~~ ..:oJ

-.-4 37 ...... ;~!l Reference Copy #70 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration ..•.~ "L!.':.~'. NASATASK: NASA Tasking Number Fixed Length 8 Positions Repeating Field (Maximum of 20 repeats) Alpha/Numeri c Keyed

The NASA Tasking Field captures NASA tasking numbers. Not every document has a NASA Tasking Number; these are numbers were assigned by NASA to the requests made by the Commission members or staff. Responsive documents were provided accompanied by the NASA Tasking Number. The first position represents the NASA location (Kennedy (K), Marshall (M), Johnson (J), or Other (0). The next three positions are left-justified numerals (for example, the number 3 is written in these three positions as 003). The last position is an

.$~",~' optional alphabetic character• :<.~~ An example of an entry in the NASA Tasking Field is:

M024

r:~1 " ,....1

--:4 .~~

-'\".~ .;';~i.

i .~~

. ~t;. :l ..""'-t ...,~l

38 ':<:'1 Reference Copy #71 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

The following fields are of interest only to data base administrators, and do not affect users.

LOADDTEX - Date Loaded 6 Positions (1-6) Numeric Scalar Keyed

Subfields:

LOAD DATE - Date MM/DD/YY Subfield of LOADDTEX Decode Field 6 Positions (1-6) Numeric Not Keyed

':l-)."'.... LOADYYMM - Date Year Nonth (YYMM) :~2]' Subfield of LOADDTEX 4 Positions (1-4) ::t:.':~:. Numeric c·'iQI. Keyed

"" _..4.,"'1 .3ii UPDDATEX - Date Updated 6 Positions (1-6) Numeric Scalar Keyed

Subfields:

1'.':";4 UPDDATE - Date MM/DD/YY ~~~;~J Subfield of UPDDATEX Decode Field 6 Positions (1-6) Numeric Not Keyed

UPYYMM - Date Year Nonth (YYMM) Subfield of LOADDTEX 4 Positions (1-4) Numeric Keyed ~~.~~ ....•..,.

39 ':41 Reference Copy #72 ":. '::-'1 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

AUTOMATIC FIELDS

KEYS Variable Length (35 Positions maximum) Alpha/Numeri c KEYED

ITEMNO 8 Positions Numeric KEYED

$FIXED 77 Positions Alpha

These fields are automatically generated by the INQUIRE system. They are part of ALL data bases and may be used in generating :\:1 reports. ~,....J The KEYS field will list the keys of a retrieved record which were

,*," ; also a part of the selection criteria for the retrieval. :~.;;.1 ITEMNO contains a unique record number assigned by INQUIRE during t~i:T-) the data loading process. t.;,~ The $FIXED field is a concatenation of all fixed length, non variable repeating fields in a retrieved record. The fields are combined in the order in which they appear in the Fields Definition Table (FDT).

,,-,~ : ,',;j .'...,;,.. '~'';

,.~~ :,..;d

, ....'-<"'I, ,', ,;;,J

\,"1' .. _;';.4"

,. -;'~: t Reference Copy #73 40 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

APPENDICES

Reference Copy #74 Commission Activities

An Overview cems regarding low temperature effects on the joint and seal. To investigate this disturbing President Reagan, seeking to ensure a development, additional closed sessions were thorough and unbiased investigation of the scheduled for February 13th and 14th at Ken­ Challenger accident, announced the fonnation of nedy. The February 13, 1986, session was an ex­ the Commission on February 3, 1986. The man­ tensive presentation of film, video and telemetry date given by the President, contained in data relating to the Challenger accident. It pro­ Executive Order 12546, required Commission vided the Commission the first evidence that the members· to: Solid Motor joint and seal may have malfunctioned, initiating the accident. The session on February 14th included (1) Review the circumstances surrounding the NASA and contractor participants involved in the accident to establish the probable cause or discussion on January 27, 1986, not to launch causes of the accident; and 51-L. After testimony was received, an executive (2) Develop recommendations for corrective session of the Commission was convened. The or other action based upon the Commis­ following statement was subsequently issued by sion's findings and determinations. the Chairman on February 15, 1986, reflecting Following their swearing in by Chairman the conclusion and view of the Commission: Rogers on February 6th, Commission members immediately began a series of hearings during "In recent days, the Commission has been which NASA officials outlined agency procedures investigating all aspects of the decision covering the Shuttle program and the status of making process leading up to the launch of NASA's investigation of the accident. the Challenger and has found that the proc­ Shortly thereafter, on February 10th, Dr. Alton ess may have been flawed. The President has G. Keel, Jr., Associate Director of the Of­ been so advised. fice of Management and Budget, was appointed "Dr. William Graham, Acting Adminis­ Executive Director. Dr. Keel began gathering a trator of NASA, has been asked not to in­ staff of 15 experienced investigators from various clude on the internal investigating teams at government agencies and the military services, NASA, persons involved in that process. and administrative personnel to support Commis­ "The Commission will, of course, continue sion activities. its investigation and will make a full report During a closed session on February 10, 1986, to the President within 120 days." the Commission began to learn of the troubled history of the Solid Rocket Motor joint and seals. Moreover, it discovered the first indication that The role of the Commissioners thus changed the contractor, Morton Thiokol, initially recom­ from that of overseers to that of active in­ mended against launch on January 27, 1986, the vestigators and analysts of data presented by night before the launch of 51- L, because of con- NASA and its contractors. 206 Reference Copy #75 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

the design, manufactur­ The Commission itself divided into four in­ was needed to establish configuration of the vestigative panels: ing and processing baseline Shuttle vehicle for STS 51-L. A data base was 1. Development and Production, responsi­ established for the examination and analysis of and ble for investigating the acquisition information related to all flight elements and the test and evaluation processes for segments. From these data and a compilation of Space Shuttle elements; possible and observed deviations from the norm, for 2. Pre-Launch Activities, responsible scenarios that might have led to the accident were assessing the Shuttle system processing, developed. Tests and analyses were then per­ launch readiness process and pre-launch formed to determine the specific scenarios most security; likely to have caused loss of Challenger. 3. Mission Planning and Operations, Early in March, at the request of the Chair­ responsible for investigating mission man, this group assembled and directed the Com­ planning and operations, schedule mission's independent team of technical observers pressures and crew safety areas; and with extensive experience in Solid Rocket Motor analyz­ 4. Accident Analysis, charged with , technology and accident investigation to validate ing the accident data and developing both and interpret the tests and analyses performed on an anomaly tree and accident scenarios. the Thiokol motor by NASA and Thiokol. and Production Panel, By February 17th, the panel organization had The Development Sutter, centered its investiga­ been finalized and, on February 18th, Chairman chaired by Joseph and testing activities of Rogers described the Commission's new approach tion on the production contractors. Starting at before Congress. Working groups were sent to the Shuttle element the panel and staff investigators looked Marshall, Kennedy and Thiokol to analyze data Johnson, contractors and their NASA counter­ relating to the accident and to redirect efforts. at how these NASA's investigation was also reorganized to parts interact. to the Wasatch plant of reflect the structure ofthe Commission's panels. They next traveled Utah. Thiokol person­ A series of public hearings were planned on Thiokol in Promontory, group on the details ofthe design, February 25th, 26th and 27th to assure an orderly nel briefed the and certification of and fair presentation ofall the facts that the Com­ manufacturing, verification Motors. Similar sessions took mission had discovered concerning the launch the Solid Rocket California, at the head­ decision making process for flight 51-L. At these place in April in Downey, Inc., the Shuttle main hearings, additional information about the launch quarters of Rocketdyne, Canoga Park, California, decision was obtained from the testimony of engine contractor; in 1 the facilities of Rockwell International, the Or­ ~ Thiokol, Rockwell and NASA officials. Details at Michoud, Louisiana, at the about the history of problems with the then bite'r contractor; in the External Tank con­ suspect Solid Rocket Motorjoints and seals also plant of Martin Marietta, i at the facilities i began emerging and served to focus the Commis­ tractor; and in Berea, Kentucky, the manufacturers of I sion's attention on a need to document fully the of Parker Seal Company, of the Thiokol Solid Rocket extent of knowledge and awareness about the the O-ring seals problems within both Thiokol and NASA. Motors. traveled to Marshall to Following these hearings, a substantial portion In addition, the panel interaction with Thiokol of the investigative efforts ofthe Commission was learn about Marshall's that had been raised during conducted by the separate panels in parallel with and to discuss issues plants. full Commission hearings. the visits to the contractors' Activities Panel, chaired by The Accident Analysis Panel, chaired by Ma­ The Pre-Launch centered its investigation at Ken­ jor General Donald Kutyna, made several trips David Acheson, the Shuttle elements are assembled to both Kennedy and Marshall and traveled to nedy where other final launch preparations are com­ Thiokol facilities in Utah to review photographic and all in conjunction with the Mis­ and telemetric evidence as well as the results of pleted. This panel, and Operations Panel, chaired by the salvage operation and to oversee the tests be­ sion Planning NASA counterparts conducted by NASA and Thiokol engineers. Dr. Sally Ride, met with its ing ofmeetings identified The Accident Analysis Panel followed stand­ in early March. This series the various aspects ofthe pre­ ard investigative procedures. An extensive effort for the Commission 207 R ference Copy #76 Reproduced at National Afdilves and Records AdmlnIstrahon

launch process that required thorough review, not ty, reliability and quality assurance functions; and only for the purpose of the Challenger accident the assembly of the right Solid Rocket Booster investigation but also to increase safety margins for STS 51-L. Subsequent investigative efforts by for the future. this group were directed in the area of the effec-, Later in March the Pre-Launch Panel again tiveness of NASA's organizational structure, par­ met at Kennedy to receive the NASA Team's ticularly the Shuttle program structure, and preliminary reports and to focus on the spare allegations that there had been external pressure parts issue and Solid Rocket Booster assembly on NASA to launch on January 28th. operations. Panel members also met with contrac­ More than 160 individuals were interviewed tor personnel involved in Shuttle processing and and more than 35 formal panel investigative ses­ Kennedy security work. sions were held generating almost 12,000 pages After the joint meeting at Kennedy with the of transcript (Table 1 and Table 2). Almost 6,300 Pre-Launch Activities Panel, the Mission Plan­ documents, totaling more than 122,000 pages, ning and Operations Panel traveled to Johnson and hundreds of photographs were examined and to begin working with its NASA counterparts and made a part of the Commission's permanent data to initiate its own investigative efforts. A specific base and archives: These sessions and all the data focus of its work was the mission planning and ' gathered added to the 2,800 pages of hearing crew preparation for STS 51-Land details of transcript generated by the Commission in both NASA's safety, reliability and quality assurance closed and open sessions. programs. Later meetings at both Johnson and In addition to the work of the Commission and Marshall dealt with range safety, weather criteria the Commission staff, NASA personnel expended for launch, flight delays and hardware testing. a vast effort in the investigation. More than 1,300 While the work of the individual panels and employees from all NASA facilities were involved their investigative staffs was ongoing, a general and were supported by more than 1,600 people investigative staff began a series of individual in­ from other government agencies and over 3,100 terviews to document fully the factual background from NASA's contractor organizations. Par­ of various areas of the Commission's interest, in­ ticularly significant were the activities of the , eluding the telecon between NASA and Thiokol military, the Coast Guard and' the NTSB in officials the night before the launch; the history the salvage and analysis of the Shuttle wreckage. ofjoint design and O-ring problems; NASA safe­

Reference Copy #77 Appendix B Commission Documentation System

Overview The Commission was able to meet its commit­ ment to ensuring the integrity of this extensive collection of information; all information pertain­ One of the Commission's initial concern~ was ing to the investigation can be easily located and to make certain that Commission members and its origin readily traced. staff would have ready access to the tens of thousands of pages of technical information, hear­ The Commission Information ing transcripts, witness interviews, and cor­ respondence relating to the Challenger accident. Management System Several aspects of the investigation made gather­ The Commission developed procedures to ing, controlling, and cataloging such information assure that it received all documents requested a formidable task. One was the massive volume from NASA and other sources and that all of information collected. In addition, the fairly documents and other correspondence were prop­ short response time required of the Commission made it imperative that all information be im­ erly processed. mediately and completely accessible. Finally, the Document Control Commission needed to make sure that it could The Commission had control procedures and account for and retrieve every piece of informa­ systems to track all types of documents relevant tion that it collected and generated. to the investigation. Specific procedures were To address those issues, the Commission used to process (1) Commission requests for in­ enlisted the support of the Justice Department's formation from NASA, and NASA's responses; Office of Litigation Support, Civil Division .. (2) NASA Task Force Reports; (3) other corre­ With existing capabilities, the Office of Litiga­ spOli.dence to and from the Commission; (4) other tion Support mounted a rigorous cataloging ef­ documents obtained by the Commission; and (5) fort, developed and implemented a document reports and transcripts generated by the control system, created the automated data bases, Commission. and established a Commission documents Sup­ The document control system ensured that all port Center for document processing and research requests, documents, transcript and interview activities. tapes, and other source materials were properly The resulting system enabled the Commission accounted for, and became part of the Commis­ to manage the volume and assortment of infor­ sion's permanent records and data base. mation received and generated in the course of the investigation, and provided Commission staff Documents Requested from NASA with rapid access to needed information. The Most documents relevant to the investigation system was designed to enable access to either came directly from NASA in response to Com­ hard copy or microfilm for future research after mission requests. The Commission requested the Commission completed its work. documents from NASA in writing or verbally at

214 Reference Copy #78 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

hearings. The Commission followed up verbal re­ terview, or meeting so that they could correct any quests with written requests. mistakes made in transcription. To handle the flow of paper, the Commission Quick entry of the transcripts into the data base assigned a staff member to be documentcoor­ allowed timely search of transcript records on a dinator. The document coordinator assigned word-by-word basis. every written request a unique control number. The number identified the date of the request and Processing of Documents and Tapes by its order of occurrence on that date. the Support Center NASA set up a complementary system. The As described in the previous section on docu­ NASA coordinator received and logged Commis­ ment control, the Commission forwarded most sion request letters, assigned unique NASA track­ documents to the Support Center for microfllm­ ing numbers to each item or group of documents ing, coding, inclusion in the computer data base, requested, and followed up to ensure that NASA and flling in the library. These documents includ­ staff responded promptly and fully. ed NASA reports and documents, selected cor­ When documents were received from NASA respondence, and other documents received by corresponding to each numbered request, 'one the Commission. copy of each was sent to the Support Center for microfilming, analysis (coding), and inclusion in Assignment of Control Numbers the computer data base. When the Support Center received a docu­ ment, Center staff immediately applied a unique Correspondence preliminary control (PC) number to each page Each individual piece of nonpersonal mail of the document. This number was a sequential arriving at the Commission was assigned a cor­ number to indicate where the original copy ofthe respondence control number. Technical staff document would be located in the library flles. evaluated correspondence for investigative value. On a microcomputer-based system, stafT captured Microfilming critical information about each correspondence After control identifiers were assigned, Center item, including correspondence control number, staff microfilmed the document and placed the of cor­ date of receipt, addressee, author, type original hard copy in the library. The Center respondence, and response date and type. made daily deliveries of completed microfilm reels Other Documents to the microfllm processing facility, which pro­ The Commission also received many duced two copies of each reel. documents other than those requested from The Support Center maintained one copy in NASA. These included relevant materials that the microfllm library, and used it to respond to Commission members themselves had gathered information requests from Commission members or generated, those from NASA and from the and staff. various NASA contractors as a result of Com­ The second copy was used to produce hard mission investigative activities, and incoming cor­ copies of the documents for coding purposes. respondence that staff decided would be of use to the investigation. These documents were also entered into the Commission's data base, and Coding and Data Entry of Microrllmed relevant correspondence was also entered into the Documents microcomputer tracking system. The purpose of coding was to develop a com­ prehensive computerized index of all microfilmed Transcripts and Commission-Generated documents. Using hard copies produced from Documents microfilm, each document was reviewed and The Commission used a court reporting firm bibliographic, control, and subject matter infor­ to transcribe hearings, interviews, and meetings. mation was recorded on a coding form designed The firm created magnetic computer tapes with specifically for the Commission investigation. the full text of the transcripts and delivered the The bibliographic information included items tapes to be loaded into the computer data base. such as document title and date, and names and The firm also provided hard copies of the organizations of people mentioned in the transcripts to all participants of the hearing, in­ documents. The control information included the

:::R ference Copy #79 215 :..~. Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration I

preliminary control number, microfilm number Libraries and other information useful in identifying and locating documents. Documents and Microfilm To capture information on subject matter, As noted above, the Support Center main­ coders read each document and noted what sub­ tained libraries of Commission documents. jects were mentioned. The coders used a list of One contained the microfilmed versions of the "subject terms" developed specifically for Com­ more than 122,000 pages of materials indexed on mission purposes. Each subject term had a unique the document data base. The microfilm was fUed six-character identifier. Every document was by reel number and cross-referenced to the assigned at least one such subject code. Docu­ preliminary control number assigned to the ments that covered many subjects were assigned original hard copy of each document. Micro­ multiple codes. fUmed documents could be quickly located Data entry operators keyed the index informa­ through the computer search capability and hard tion from the completed coding forms onto copies printed, if desired. magnetic tape to be loaded into the computer data The second library contained hard copies of base. transcripts and other Commission generated From the date a document was received, it was documents (those documents stored in the full­ microfUmed, fUed in the hard copy and mic~ofUm text data base), plus the originals of the micro­ libraries, coded, and entered on the computer filmed documents, which could be located by data base within one week. Throughout the proc­ using the preliminary control number. ess, there were numerous quality checks to en­ sure the readability ofthe microfUm, the accuracy of the document coding, and the overall integri­ Other Materials ty of the data base. The Commission also maintained a library of video tapes of presentations, hearings, photo­ Creation and Data Entry of Index Informa­ graphic and film records relating to the accident tion from Transcripts and Commission itself, and the salvage operations. These tapes Generated Documents were filed chronologically by date received and For the Commission generated documents and labeled according to subject. Use of these the transcripts, index information was captured materials was controlled through a library check­ and entered into the computer. This information out system. included date of the hearing or report; names of Audio tapes of interviews were labeled and all attendees, Commission members or witnesses; maintained at the Support Center. These were and other cross-reference data. filed chronologically by interview date and con­ The index information was added to the full­ trolled through a library check-out system. text versions on the magnetic computer tapes, and loaded into the computer data base. . Use of the Data Bases Creation of the Computer Data Base Through the processes described above, the The Support Center provided personnel to per­ Commission created two computer data bases. form searches of both the document data base The first-called the document data base, named (INQUIRE) and the full-text data base aURIS). INQUIRE-contained the index (bibliographic, Access to INQUIRE and JURIS was gained control, and subject matter information) of all from terminals at the Support Center and the microfilmed documents, representing more than Commission offices. 100,000 pages. Detailed information on the use of these The second-called the full-text data base, systems is available in the following OLS named JURIS - contained the full text of (1) documentation: "INQUIRE Users Manual," transcripts of all Commission hearings, inter­ 'JURIS Users Manual," and "Challenger Data views, and panel meetings; and (2) Commission Bases - Sample Searches for JURIS and reports, hearing digests, and affidavits. INQUIRE."

Reffltefhce Copy #80 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

The Document Data Base Accessible pil~~ to assist historians and others in using and Through INQUIRE gammg access to this large and very important The INQUIRE system allowed rapid retrieval collection. These materials were provided to the National and review of the index information that con­ Arch~ves .in accordance with the procedures stituted the document data base. descnbed m FPMR 10 I-II. 4, "General Records Users who wanted to locate documents on a Schedules," published by the National Archives particular subject (such as a-ring erosion) could and Records Administration, and specifically search the document data base using the Schedule 24 which focuses on "Temporary Com­ bibliographic information or subject codes cap­ missions, Committees, and Boards Records." tured for each document. INQUIRE provided a listing of all documents matching the criteria specified in the search. The user could then decide Materials Provided which of the listed documents would be useful The following materials were turned over to and, using the document number provided, ob­ the Archives at the conclusion of the investigation: tain a copy of the document from the library. • The Commission's Report, including all The user could ask INQUIRE to list a variety appendices; of information on selected documents, including • All materi~ls. requested and received by the preliminary control number (used to locate the Commlsslon from NASA and its con­ the material in the library), date, title, and docu­ tractors, including the NASA Task Force ment type. INQUIRE could also print all the reports; subject terms associated with each selected docu­ • All documents provided to the Commis- . ment (not just the subject term(s) that matched sion and its staff at hearings, meetings, the search criteria), and all the names mentioned presentations, and interviews; . in the text. Users could also choose the order in • The entire microfilm collection contain­ which INQUIRE listed the documents (e.g., ing those materials (both in open-reel and chronologically by document date, alphabetical­ cartridge format), as well as a file-level ly by author name, or numerically by document index to each reel; number). • All transcripts of hearings, panel meetings The Full-Text Data Base Accessible· and interviews; • Summaries of all hearing transcripts and Through JURIS significant interview transcripts; The Department of justice developed JURIS • Indices to the INQUIRE (document) specifically for retrieval of full-text information , data base, listing all of the documents by and designed it for easy use by nontechnical per­ document number, date, and subject sonnel. Users could ask JURIS to locate all term; documents containing specific words or phrases. • All correspondence and respective Users could specify multiple words or phrases, responses, as well as indices to the entire and could include index information as one of the correspondence collection sorted by search criteria. Users could request that JURIS author, correspondence type, and date of print a list of documents that were selected or . ' receipt; pnnt the full text of the documents. • Computer tapes containing the entire IN­ QUIRE data base prepared for and used Final Disposition of Commission by the Commission in the course of its investigation; Report and Investigation-Related • Complete set of the request letters sent by Materials the Commission to NASA, the resulting Action Item forms, and the responsive The entire collection of documents and memoranda that closed out each of those microfilm is permanently housed in the National Action Items; Archives. In addition, several different indices • All press releases produced by the and other supporting documentation were com­ Commission;

217 eference Copy #81 ArPtN'D; X 1): Table 2 Commission Panel Sessions

Date Location Subject

Accident Analysis Panel March 3, 4, 5 Marshall Accident Data Review, Fault Tree Analysis March 6, 7 Kennedy Film & Wreckage Review March 11 Kennedy Coordination with NASA Task Force March 12, 13 Marshall Accident Data Review, Fault Tree Analysis, Test Requirements March 19 Thiokol-Utah Test Coordination March 26 Marshall Test Review April 10, 11 Marshall Test Review April 14, 15, 16, 17 Marshall Final Review Design, Development and Production Panel )( March 5 Johnson Preliminary Briefing March 17 Thiokol-Utah Fact-Finding Session March 18 Thiokol-Utah Design-Production April 2 Rocketdyne - California Main Engines il3 Rocketdyne & Rockwell-California Developmen t - Orbiter s ~'iAJil41Ar Rockwell-California Orbiter April 7 Marshall Development and Production April 8,9 Martin Marietta-Louisiana Development - External Tank April 11 Parker Seal-Kentucky O-rings Pre-Launch Activities Panel March 4, 5, 6 Kennedy Training, Workload, Schedule, Spares, Pre-Launch Investigation Update, Security March 17, 18, 19 Kennedy Manpower, Spare Parts, Shuttle Processing, Security, Hold-down Post Spring 51-L, Booster Flow, Salvage Status, SRB Recovery, Launch Readiness Process

Mission Planning and Operations Panel March 4,5 Kennedy Preliminary Briefing March 11, 12 Johnson Crew Activity Planning, Training, Abort Modes, Safety, Manifesting March 20 Johnson Objectives Review March 24, 25 Johnson Range Safety, Mission Operations, Landing Opera­ tions, Weather, Tile Damage, Main Engines, Safety, Reliability and Quality Assurance March 31, April 1 Johnson Payload Safety, Hardware Testing, Training, 51-L Flight Design April 7 Marshall Safety, Reliability and Quality Assurance April 8, 9 Johnson Workload, Software, Manifesting, Landing Considerations ---?i April 141 15 Johnson Ascent/Entry Envelope, Abort Option History, Safety, Reliability and Quality Assurance

NfET IN6-S. F"IlE" ON Tlff \S'R."",C t\ 0;' Tt'\E- NATlOrv"'L SVD'CII\I.-, FIS:t-\L AND

~ = rt1E"SF-r~,JUt<;~~\ Pr-s rence Co~1ft82 TAf~. Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

• All video and audio tapes received by the Public Access Commission, including indices to those To gain access to the Commission's two collections; and documents, requests can be made to: • All planning and instructional materials Office of the National Archives related to the creation and use of the IN­ National Archives and Records QUIRE and JURIS data bases. Administration Washington, DC 20408

218 Reference Copy #83 ON AfPENDix c .. Table 1 Commission Investigative Interviews

Interviews of January 27, 1986 Teleconference (8: 15 PM EST) Participants Ben Powers John Schell William Macbeth Jerry E. Mason Frank Adams Keith Coates Brian Russell Robert Lund Larry Wear George Hardy Jack Kapp Joseph Kilminster James Smith J ud Lovingood Ron Ebeling Roger Boisjoly Boyd Brinton Jack Buchanan Calvin Wiggins Arnold Thompson Robert Schwinghamt=r Allan McDonald Larry Sayer Jerry Peoples William Reihl Carver Kennedy Joel Maw James Kingsbury . Wayne Littles Cecil Houston Kyle Speas John Q. Miller Lawrence Mulloy Jerry Burn John McCarty Stanley Reinartz Don Ketnt=r

208 .... &2 - EDUU.m=aca .E ----...~;,.;:>-.

Reference Copy #84 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

Interviews of Personnel Involved in Stacking of of Right SRB for Flight 51-L Howard Fichtl Ed O'Neal Mike Sestile Jim Gardner Jack Roberts Leslie Lake Granville Goad John Taris Curtis J. Newsome Buddy Rogers David Mumpower Kenneth Koby Mark Vigil Mario Duran Robin Nix Allen R. Hyde Bob Heinbaugh Jim St. John Glenn Charron Jerry Wilkerson Howard Christy Billy Massey Stewart Dalton Alex McCool Jackie Walden Mike Sieglitz Sharron Whitaker Charles D. Newman Alvie Hicks Jim Jordan

Interviews on Ice on Pad Thomas Moser John Peller

Interviews on Security Marvin Jones Herbert Weisner

Interviews on History of SRB Joint Design and Problem Leon Ray Robert Lindstrom James Kingsbury Ben Powers Alex McCool J ames Brier Sam Lowry Michael Mann Jerry Peoples Jesse Moore Stanley Reinartz Richard Kohrs Glenn Eudy Joseph Kilminster Calvin Wiggins Maurice Parker Ben Powers Arnold Thompson Mark Salita Keith Coates John Miller Irving Davids Joe Pelham John Schell Bill Rice Arnold Aldrich Phillip Dykstera James W. Thomas Bill Horton Hans Mark Ed Dorsey Boyd Brinton Jerry Cox Glynn Lunney' Roger Boisjoly Jam~s Abrahamson Bill Bush Walt C. Williams Brian Russel Jerry Mason Paul Wetzel George Hardy Jack Kemp Jack Kapp David Winterhalter Larry Mulloy Robert Lund Ronald Ebeling William Hamby Fred Uptagrafft Howard McIntosh Arnold Aldrich Michael Weeks Richard Cook Glenn Eudy Hazel Saunders Paul Herr Walter Dankhoff Robert Gaffin

Interview on Launch Coverage Camera Failures Charles Alsworth

Interviews on Outside Pressure To Launch Karen Ehlers Michael Weeks Phil Culbertson jerry E. Mason George Johnson jesse Moore George Hardy Arnold Aldrich Lawrence Wear james Beggs Charles Kupperman Larry Mulloy john Miller William R. Graham Shirley Green joseph Kilminster Q. Stanley Reinartz james Smith Richard Cook Vera Herschberg Ben Powers Richard Smith Robert Lund Norman Terrell

eference Copy #85 209 t;;eprodpced at National Archjves and Records Admjnistration

Interviews on Safety, Reliability and Quality Assurance David Brown Jackie C. Walker Howard Gittens Wayne Frazier Richard M. Henritze Benny Nunnelly Brian Russell Norman R. Schulze James O. Batte George Butler Haggai Cohen Stanley Reinartz Arthur M. Carr Henry P. Smith Harry Quong Milton Silveira Wiley C. Bunn Wesley Hawkins Dallas N. Vickers David Austin John Maxson

Interviews on Management Structure Dick Kohrs James Smith Jerry Cox Richard A. Colonna Jesse Moore Arnold Aldrich Jerry Griffin Walt C. Williams Dr. Hans Mark John J. McCarty Stanley Reinartz George Bridwell William Hamby Scott Simpkinson J ames Kingsbury George Johnson Michael Weeks James Brier Thomas J. Lee Richard Cook Lawrence Wear Jud A. Lovingood William F. Taylor Michael Mann John Q. Miller Bill Bush William Lucas

Interviews on Human Factors Louis E. Toole Jenny Howard Ray Hallard Gregory Haywood Williams James B. Hill Greg Oliver Ken McCrary Robert L. Brayant Leonard J. Riche Robert Yackovetsky Joe ,Kenneth Patterson Keith Coates Heather M. Mitchell Morton O'Hare

Interview on Wreckage Reconstruction Terry Armentrout

Interview on Crew Activities George Abbey

210 Reference Copy #86 o N n, e n rc yes an. S Z; rN-r " Executive Order 12546, dated February 3, 1986, whic1i established the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident A Pf'EN'D lX E:

EXECUTIVE ORDER

PRESIDENTIAL COMMISSION ON THE SPACE SHUTTLE CHALLENGER ACCIDENT

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and statutes of the United States of America, including the Federal Advisory Committee Act, as amended (5 U.S.C. App. I), and in order to establish a commission of distinguished Americans to investigate the accident to the Space Shuttle Challenger, 'it is hereby ordered as follows: Section 1. Establishment. (a) There is established the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident. The Commission shall be composed of not more than 20 members appointed or designated by the President. The members shall be drawn from among distinguished leaders of the government, and the scientific, technical, and management communities. (b) The President shall designate a Chairman and a Vice Chairman from among the members of the Commission. Sec. 2. Functions. (a) The Commission shall investi­ gate the accident to the Space Shuttle Challenger, which occurred on January 28, 1986. (b) The Commission shall: (1) Review the circumstances surrounding the accident to establish the probable cause or causes of the accident; and (2) Develop recommendations for corrective or other action based upon the Commission's findings and determinations. (c) The Commission shall submit its final report to the President and the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration within one hundred and twenty days of the date of this Order.

212 Reference Copy #87 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

2

Sec. 3. Administration. (a) The heads of Executive departments and agencies shall, to the extent permitted by law, provide the Commission with such information as it may require for purposes of carrying out its functions. (b) Members of the Commission shall serve without compensation for their work on the Commission. However, members appointed from among private citizens of the United States may be allowed travel expenses, including per diem in lieu of subsistence, to the extent permitted by law for persons serving intermittently in the government

service (5 U.S.C. 5701-5707). (c) To the extent permitted by law, and subject to the availability of appropriations, the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration shall provide the Commission with such administrative services, funds, facilities, staff, and other support services as may be necessary for the performance of its functions. Sec. 4. General Provisions. Ca) Notwithstanding the provisions of any other Executive Order, the functions of the President under the Federal Advisory Committee Act which are applicable to the Commission, except that of reporting annually to the Congress, shall be performed by the Adminis­ trator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, in accordance with guidelines and procedures established by the Administrator of General Services. (b) The Commission shall terminate 60 days after submitting its final report.

THE WHITE BOUSE, February 3, 1986.

213

Copy #88 Washington, DC 20408

INFORMATION FOR RESEARCHERS

RECORDS OF THE PRESIDENTIAL COMMISSION ON THE SPACE SHUTTLE CHALLENGER ACCIDENT

Introduction

The Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident, chaired by former Secretary of State William P. Rogers, investigated the circumstances surrounding the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger shortly after liftoff on January 28, 1986. The Commission was established in February 1986, pursuant to Executive Order 12546, and it issued its final report in June 1986. At the conclusion of its investigation, the records of the Commission were transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration for permanent preservation. They have been accessioned in Record Group 220: Records of Temporary Committees, Commissions, and Boards, and are available to the public.

The records of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident in the custody of the National Archives exist in several media, and custody of the records within the National Archives varies accordingly. The paper and microfilm records are available from the Civil Reference Branch, Textual Reference Division; the electronic records (i.e., the computer-readable datasets) are in the custody of the Center for Electronic Records, and the video and audio tapes are in the custody of the Motion Picture, Sound and Video Branch of the Special Archives Division.

Researchers should note that there is considerable, but not complete, overlap between the textual records on paper or microfilm and the textual records that are stored in an electronic format. Therefore, in order to review all textual records of the Commission, a researcher should consider the paper, microfilm, and electronic records. Each of the custodial units has finding aids to supplement the following brief description; they describe the Challenger Commission records more extensively.

Indices

The reports, photographs, and other materials submitted to the Commission, as well as some of the Commission's correspondence and internal memoranda, referred to as "P.C." (preliminary control) Series documents, were microfilmed and indexed by Commission staff. The index, which includes bibliographic, control, and subject matter information about the P.C. documents, was developed and maintained on a computer. It was referred to as the INQUIRE Index, and was so named

Reference Copy #89 National Arcbives andRecords Administration Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

Information for Researchers, Challenger Commission Records, p. 2

because of the software system utilized by the Commission for retrieval and review from the index. Several printouts of the INQUIRE Index were produced by the Commission staff. They list all of the documents by date, by PC control number (i.e., in chronological order on the basis of the arrival of paper to the Commission), by subject term, and by document number (i.e., location on the microfilm).

The INQUIRE Index was transferred to the National Archives in the form of the printouts and as a software-independent electronic dataset. The printouts subsequently were microfiched at the National Archives. Copies of the index may be acquired on either paper (electrostatic copies of the printouts), microfiche, or computer tape. The microfiche may also be viewed directly by researchers in Room 400 of the National Archives Building. It is Microfilm Publication M1501, Indexes to Records of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident. 1986.

The Civil Reference Branch also has an index, on paper, to the "C.C." (correspondence of the Commission) Series. It also has a list of the interview transcripts and of the sound recordings and video tapes preserved and available from the Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Branch.

Documentary Material

1. The P.C. Series: reports, photographs, and other materials submitted to the Commission by NASA and its contractors to provide background information on technical aspects of the ; also includes some of the Commission's correspondence and internal memorandum. a.) These records are preserved in paper and are available from the Civil Reference Branch. There are 148 boxes of this material. b.) The P.C. Series documents also have been microfilmed as Microfilm Publication No. M1496, Challenger Commission P.C. Numbered Documents, 1986. This microfilm publication may be ordered or may be viewed directly in Room 400 of the National Archives Building. c.) An electronic dataset identified as a Reports Text File, includes the text of 7 reports received by the Commission; a copy may be acquired from the Center for Electronic Records.

2. Transcripts: of the Commission's various panels which investigated a variety of technical issues; of hearings held by the full Commission; and of interviews conducted by Commission staff members with employees of NASA and its contractors. The transcripts have been published and are also preserved in electronic format, with a few exceptions. a.) Transcripts of the panels (meetings): the electronic dataset has transcripts for 54 panel meetings; one of these is not in the paper records. Transcripts for two additional panels are in paper but are not included in the computerized dataset. b.) Transcripts of hearings appear to exist identically in

Reference Copy #90 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

Introduction for Researchers, Challenger Commission Records, p. 3

published and electronic formats, but this has not been completely verified. The electronic dataset includes transcripts of 62 hearings. In addition, there is an electronic dataset called Digests Text File which has abstracts for 48 of the hearings conducted by the Commission. The abstracts are not available on paper. c.) Transcripts of interviews exist in both paper and electronic formats, with a few exceptions. The electronic dataset includes transcripts for 160 interviews conducted by the Commission; there are 12 additional interview transcripts in the paper records.

3. "C.C." Series: correspondence of the Commission, primarily letters received from the public, and some from journalists and members of Congress. They are preserved in their original paper format.

4. Affidavits: the electronic records include a dataset with the text of three affidavits taken by the Commission. The paper records do not contain a segregated affidavits file, making it difficult to determine the relationship between the electronic file and the affidavits in the paper records.

5. Videotapes of the launch, press conferences, Commission meetings, and other events. These are preserved and available through the Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Branch (Room G-13, National Archives Building) .

6. Sound recordings of a majority of the interviews and hearings conducted by the Commission. These are also preserved and available through the Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Branch.

Further Information

Civil Reference Branch, Room 13E, National Archives Building, (202) 501-5425; Center for Electronic Records, Reference Services, Room 18E, National Archives Building, (202) 501-5579; Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Branch, Reference Room, G-13, National Archives Building, (202) 501-5449.

NNXA:moa:198906

Reference Copy #91 t'tfEf7A'(ro 8! rH~ ()/)IC,AL, IS~~L AND 'OC-IAL A Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration _____ IVATI ON t1 L AI\CHI'Vrs.

APPENb/X G~ LIST OF CHALLENGER COMMISSION INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS

* withheld in part ** withheld in entirety

I. MARSHALL SPACE FLIGHT CENTER

1. Leslie Adams, March 12, 1986 :;»,. V'" >. 2. James O. Batte, April 2, 1986* ;J" o. :!: 3. Gene Bridwell, April 22, 1986

4. Wiley Bunn, April 3, 1986* April 17, 1986 )(

5. William C. Bush, March 26, 1986**

6. George Butler, April 2, 1986*

7. Arthur Carr, April 3, 1986*

8. Keith Coates, March 25, 1986 April 10, 1986* April 23, 1986

9. Jerry Cox, March 26, 1986

10. Glenn Eudy, March 26, 1986

11. Luther powers/Robert Gaffin, May 16, 1986

12. George Hardy, April 3, 1986*

13. William Horton, March 27, 1986 )(

14. Cecil Houston, April 10, 1986*

15. James Kingsbury, April 23, 1986

16. Thomas Lee, April 23, 1986

17. Robert Lindstrom, May 5, 1986

18. Wayne Littles, March 14, 1986

19. Judson Lovingood, April 23, 1986

20. William Lucas, April 23, 1986

>(= ,~€s~ iN T~\J'i~ -rf:ANSCR~PT~ D~ NOT. APP~AR.. tN THE. IN1"'O:.\I I'£WS FIL.t ON 'THE 'APE IN II-lE" CUS-ro'i>j Reference COlW#92n-\E" fv1r1CHiNc- ~EADA61.t: -t; C.-\N Ct-\. '"1lI\ E R€SI A ~t:

Av'AIL.A6L£. iN THE FIL..S ••.•••.•••-. ••.,._...... ~._ ...... _ ••, .. '0' ' .•' ••• ./ Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

I 2 I "l ~I 21. "John McCarty, March 19, 1986 :;:li May 16, 1986 01 OJ~I 22. Alex McCool, March 27, 1986 '"1

:1-Ii 23. John Miller, March 13, 1986 March 27, 1986 '"i~l ....-'l ;'1 24. Larry Mulloy, April 2, 1986 -II -I 0' 25. Charles Newman, April 11, 1986 zl >­ r 26. Benny Nunnelley, April 2, 1986* > :;:l n, :;;:,' 27. Jerry Peoples, Ma~ch 12, 1986 -i <' 1"'11 t.i>1 28. Ben Powers, March 12, 1986 ! March 26, 1986 '"

29. William Ray, March 25, 1986

30. Stan Reinartz, April 3, 1986 April 22, 1986

31. Bill Rice, March 26, 1986

32. Wilbur Riehl, March 13, 1986

33. Hazel Sanders, May 16, 1986

34. John Schell, March 25, 1986*

35. Bob Schwinghammer, March 13, 1986

36. James Smith, March 13, 1986

37. Henry Smith, April 2, 1986*

38. William Taylor, April 22, 1986

39. James Thom~s, April 10, 1986

40. Fred Uptagrafft, April 1, 1986*

41. Dallas Vickers, April 2, 1986

42. Jackie Walker, April 3, 1986*

43. Lawrence Wear, March 12, 1986

Reference Copy #93 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

3 II. MORTON-THIOKOL

1. Roger Boisjoly, April 2, 1986

2. Boyd Brinton, March 13, 1986 April 11, 1986

3. JaCK Buchanan, March 25, 1986

4. Jerry Burn, March 25, 1986

5. Glenn Charron, March 27, 1986

6. Stewart Dalton, March 26, 1986

7. Edward Dorsey, April 2, .1986

8. Mario Duran, March 26, 1986

9. Philip Dykstra, April 2, 1986

10. Bill Ebeling, March 19, 1986

11. Howard Ficht1, March 27, 1986

12. JaCK Gardner, March 27, 1986

13. Howard Gittins, April 2, 1986

14. Granville Goad, March 26, 1986

15. Wesley Hankins, April 2, 1986

16. James Heinbaugh, March 26, 1986

17. A1vie Hicks, March 26, 1986

18. James Jordan, March 26, 1986

19. JaCK Kapp, March 19, 1986 April 2, 1986

20. Carver Kennedy, March 25, 1986

21. Joe Kilminster, April 4, 1986

22. Don Kitner, March 26, 1986

23. Leslie LaKe, March 26, 1986

24. Robert Lund, April 1, 1986

25. Bill McBeth, March 14, 1986

Reference Copy #94 / Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

4

26. Jerry Mason, April 2, 1986

27. Billy Massey, March 26, 1986

28. Joe Maw, March 20, 1986

29. John Maxson, April 10, 1986**

30. Edward McIntosh, April 2, 1986 31. Allan McDonald, March 19, 1986

32. Dave Mumpower, March 26, 1986

33. Curtis Newsome, March 27, 1986

34. Robin Nix, March 26, 19'86

35. Edward O'Neal, March 26, 1986

36. Maurice Parker, April 4, 1986*

37. Joe Pelham, April 2, 1986

38. Jack Roberts, March 26, 1986 39. Buddy Rogers, March 26, 1986

40. Brian Russell, March 19, 1986 April 3, 1986

41. Mark Salita, April 2, 1986

42. Larry Sayer, March 20, 1986

43. Michael Sestile, March 26,,1986*

44. Kyle Speas, March 20, 1986

45. Jim St. John, March 26, 1986

46. John Taris', March 26, 1986

47. Arnold Thompson, April 4, 1986*

48. Jackie Walden, March 26, 1986

49. Sharon Whitaker, March 26, 1986

SO. Calvin Wiggins, March 19, 1986 April 2, 1986

Reference Copy #95 .I Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration .'

i 5 I / III. NASA HEADQUARTERS

l. David Austin, April 22, 1986*

2. James Beggs, May 1, 1986

3. James Brier, April 8, 1986

4. Haggai Cohen, April 14, 1986

5. Richard Cook, March 28, 1986* April 29, 1986

6. Phillip culbertson, April 9, 1986

7. Walter Dankoff, May 15, ·1986* 8. Irving Davids, April 4, 1986 )(

9. Karen Ehlers, April 16, 1986

10. James Fanseen, June 2, 1986)(

11. William Graham, April 25, 1986

12. Shirley Green, April 9, 1986

13. William Hamby, April 7, 1986

14. Richard Henritze, April 2, 1986*

lS. Paul Herr, April 7, 1986 April 1S, 1986

16. Jenny Howard, April 16, 1986

17. Vera Hirschberg, April 10, 1986

18. Charles Kupperman, April 8, 1986

19. Chester Lee, April 28, 1986

20. Samuel Lowry, April 3, 1986

21. Michael Mann, April 4, 1986**

22. Hans MarK, April 9, 1986 )(

23. Jesse Moore, April 8, 1986 April 24, 1986

24. Thomas Moser, April 10, 1986

25. Harry Quong, April 11, 1986

Reference Copy #96 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration r 6 / ! 26. Norman Schultze, April 15, 1986

27. Milton Silveira, April 16, 1986

28. Norman Terrell, April 8, 1986

29. Lawrence Weeks, April 7, 1986 m

30. David Winterhalter, April 4, 1986

3l. Paul Wetzel, April 4, 1986

IV. ROCKWELL

l. James Hill, April 15, 1986

2. Gerald Johnson, May 8, 1986

3. Glynn Lunney, April 10, 1986 4. Morton O'Hare, April 16, 1986

5. Joe Patterson, April 16, ·1986

6. John Peller, April 10, 1986

7. Louis Toole, April 15, 1986

V. MISCELLANEOUS 1. Arnold Aldrich/Richard Kohrs, April 8, 1986 ~

2. James Abrahamson, April 17, 1986

3. Terrance Armentrout, April 23, 1986

4. William Lucas (press conference), n.d.

VI. JOHNSON SPACE CENTER

1. Robert Bryant, April 16, 1986

2. Richard Colonna, April 25, 1986 ~ 3. Jerry Griffin, April 25, 1986 ~

4. Raymond Halyard, April 16, 1986

Reference Copy #97 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

7 /

5. B.J. McCarty, April 15, 1986 ~ 6. Kenneth McCrary, April 16, 1986

7. Heather Mitchell, April 16, 1986

8. Gregory Oliver, April 16, 1986

9. Leonard Riche, April 15, 1986

10. Gregory Williams, April 16, 1986

VII. KENNEDY SPACE CENTER

1. Charles Alsworth, March 25, 1986

2. Howard Christy, March 26, 1986

3. Allen Hyde, March 27, 1986

4. Marvin Jones, 'April 23, 1986**

5. Kenneth Koby, March 27, 1986

6. Mona Sieglitz, March 26, 1986

7. Dick Smith, May 27, 1986 .~

8. Mark Vigil, March 27, 1986

9. John Weisner, April 24, 1986**

10. Walter Williams, April 28, 1986*

11. Jerry Wilkerson, March 27, 1986

Reference Copy #98 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

SAMPLE DUMPS

Reference Copy #99 60370210 100000001 SiAeT O~ 860206 200000002 l>oCvMOlj 09:50 AM 300000003 GRAHAM, DR. WILLIAM R.j NASA 400000004 ROGERS, WILLIAM P. 500000005 ARMSTRONG, NEIL A. 500000006 RIDE, DR. SALLY 500000007 WALKER, DR. ARTHUR 500000008 ACHESON, DAVID C. 500000009 FEYNMAN, DR. RICHARD 500000010 KUTYNA, MAJOR GENERAL DONALD 500000011 HOTZ, ROBERT 500000012 RUMMEL, ROBERT 500000013 WHEELON, DR. ALBERT 500000014 <00001.01> PRESIDENTIAL COMMISSION ON T00000015 <00001.02> SPACE SHUTTLE CHALLENGER ACCIDENT T00000016 <00001.03> T00000017 <00001.04> Thursday, February 6, 1986 T00000018 <00001.05> T00000019 <00001.06> National Academy of Sciences T00000020 <00001.07> Auditorium T00000021 <00001.08> 2100 Constitution Avenue, N.W. T00000022 <00001.09> Washington, D. C. T00000023 <00001.10> The Presidential Commission met, pursuant to T00000024 <00001.11> Presidential Executive Order, at 9:50 o'clock a.m •. T00000025 <00001.12> PRESENT: T00000026 <00001.13> WILLIAM P. ROGERS, Chairman T00000027 <00001.14> NEIL A. ARMSTRONG T00000028 <00001.15> DR. SALLY RIDE T00000029 <00001.16> DR. ALBERT WHEELON T00000030 <00001.17> ROBERT RUMMEL T00000031 <00001.18> DR. ARTHUR WALKER T00000032 <00001.19> RICHARD FEYNMAN T00000033 <00001.20> ROBERT HOTZ T00000034 <00001.21> DAVID C. ACHESON T00000035 <00001.22> MAJOR GENERAL DONALD KUTYNA T00000036 <00002.01> PRO C E E DIN G S T00000037 <00002.02> CHAIRMAN ROGERS: Ladies and gentlemen, I now T00000038 !<00002.03> would like to call this first meeting of the T00000039 .'<00002.04> Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger T00000040 <00002.05> Accident to order. T00000041 <00002.06> I want to make just a couple of preliminary T00000042 <00002.07> remarks. Ask you know, this Commission was appointed by T00000043 <00002.08> the President on Monday, and because of the time frame T00000044 <00002.09> within which we are working, we wanted to start it as T00000045 <00002.10> expeditiously as possible, and members of the Commission T00000046 <00002.11> have been very accommodating and have agreed to come to T00000047 <00002.12> Washington yesterday. T00000048 <00002.13> We had a preliminary get together to discuss T00000049 <00002.14> our plans, and where we were to go based upon the T00000050 <00002.15> Executive Order, and we have with the cooperation on T00000051 <00002.16> NASA and the White House and other officials, been able T00000052 <00002.17> to set up this meeting for this morning. The purpose of T00000053 <00002.18> the meeting this morning is to be brought up to date on T00000054 <00002.19> the events that have occurred since the accident, T00000055 <00002.20> principally by officials from NASA. They have been very T00000056 <00002.21> cooperative and have been working closely with us, and T00000057 <00002.22> we are obviously go;ng to rely in large part on the T00000058 <00002.23> investigations that they have conducted and will conduct T00000059

Reference Copy # 100 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

<00002.24> in the future. T00000060 <00002.25> On the other hand, as we said when the T00000061 <00003.01> President announced the appointment of the Commission, T00000062 <00003.02> we have our own responsibilities. We can seek other T00000063 <00003.03> evidence, get any other information we may desire, and T00000064 <00003.04> the NASA officials have been, as I say, very cooperative T00000065 <00003.05> in that respect. T00000066 <00003.06> I would like to, by way of a beginning, refer T00000067 <00003.07> to the Executive Order that created the Commission T00000068 <00003.08> because we want to stick very closely to the T00000069 <00003.09> instructions that we received from the President, and I T00000070 <00003.10> will just read briefly the important part of that T00000071 <00003.11> Executive Order. T00000072 <00003.12> It says "The Commission shall investigate the T00000073 <00003.13> accident of the Space Shuttle Challenger which occurred T00000074 <00003.14> on January 28, 1986, and the Commission shall:" T00000075 <00003.15> "(1) Review the circumstances surrounding the T00000076 <00003.16> accident to establish the probable cause or causes of T00000077 <00003.17> the accident; and T00000078 <00003.18> "(2) Develop recommendations for corrective or T00000079 <00003.19> other action based upon the Commision's findings and T00000080 <00003.20> determinations." T00000081 <00003.21> "The Commission shall submit its final report T00000082 <00003.22> to the President and to the Administrator of the T00000083 <00003.23> National Aeronautics and Space Administration within 120 T00000084 <00003.24> days of the date of this Order." T00000085 <00003.25> So our first task, it seems to me, and I think T00000086 <00004.01> other member of the Commission, is to deal with, one, T00000087 <00004.02> review the circumstances surrounding the accident to T00000088 <00004.03> establish the probable cause or causes of the accident. T00000089 <00004.04> Now, with that opening statement, keeping in T00000090 <00004.05> mind that that is our purpose this morning, to be T00000091 <00004.06> brought up to date on the events that have occurred T00000092 <00004.07> since the accident, we will calIon NASA officials, and T00000093 <00004.08> I guess the first witness is Dr. Graham. T00000094 <00004.09> Doctor, I will ask the Clerk to swear you in. T00000095 <00004.10> THE CLERK: Do you solemnly swear the T00000096 . <00004.11> testimony you are about to give will be the truth, the T00000097 \<00004.12> whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you T00000098 ·<00004.13> God? T00000099 <00004.14> DR. GRAHAM: I do. T00000100 <00005.01> TESTIMONY OF DR. WILLIAM R. GRAHAM, ACTING T00000101 <00005.02> ADMINISTRATOR, NATIONAL AERONAUTICAL AND T00000102 <00005.03> SPACE ADMINISTRATION T00000103 <00005.04> DR. GRAHAM: Mr. Chairman, members of the T00000104 <00005.05> Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident, T00000105 <00005.06> NASA welcomes your role in considering and reviewing the T00000106 <00005.07> facts and circumstances surrounding the accident of the T00000107 <00005.08> Space Shuttle Challenger. T00000108 <00005.09> NASA continues to analyze the system design T00000109 <00005.10> and data, and as we do, you can be certain that NASA T00000110 <00005.11> will provide you with its complete and total T00000111 <00005.12> cooperation. Along with the President, I look forward T00000112 <00005.13> to receiving your report and to' the resumption of space T00000113 <00005.14> flight with our national Space Shuttle System. T00000114 <00005.15> I would like to introduce now Mr. Jesse Moore, T00000115 <00005.16> who is NASA's Associate Administrator for Space flight T00000116 <00005.17> and also the Chairman of NASA's 51-L Data Design T00000117 <00005.18> Analysis Test Task Force. He will conduct the T00000118

Reference Copy # 10 1 R~produced at National Archives and Records Administration

<00005.19> briefing. T00000119 <00005.20> Thank you. T00000120 <00005.21> THE CLERK: Do you solemnly swear the T00000121 <00005.22> testimony you are about to give will be the truth, the T00000122 <00005.23> whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you T00000123 <00005.24> God? T00000124 EI"ID of <00005.25> MR. MOORE: I do. T00000125 i)ocuMEN, CHALLENGER COMMISSION HEARINGS 700000126 60370220 100000127 860206 200000128 09:50 AM 300000129 MOORE, JESSE W.i NASA 400000130 ROGERS, WILLIAM P. 500000131 ARMSTRONG, NEIL A. 500000132 RIDE, DR. SALLY 500000133 WALKER, DR. ARTHUR 500000134 ACHESON, DAVID C. 500000135 FEYNMAN, DR. RICHARD 500000136 KUTYNA, MAJOR GENERAL DONALD 500000137 HOTZ, ROBERT . 500000138 RUMMEL, ROBERT 500000139 WHEELON, DR. ALBERT 500000140 <00006.01> TESTIMONY OF JESSE W. MOORE, ASSOCIATE T00000141 <00006.02> ADMINISTRATOR FOR SPACE FLIGHT, NATIONAL T00000142 <00006.03> AERONAUTICAL AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION, AND T00000143 <00006.04> CHAIRMAN, 51-L DATA DESIGN ANALYSIS TEST T00000144 <00006.05> TASK FORCE T00000145 <00006.06> MR. MOORE: Mr. Chairman, members of the T00000146 <00006.07> Commission, we are here today before you to discuss the T00000147 <00006.08> Space Shuttle Challenger accident and to talk to you To.0000148 <00006.09> about where we stand today in terms of our analysis that T00000149 <00006.10> we have done so far as a result of that accident, and T00000150 <00006.11> supporting me here today are various members of the NASA T00000151 <00006.12> centers involved, as well as member of the Astronaut T00000152 <00006.13> Office down at the Johnson Space Center. T00000153 <00006.14> I would like to say that we tried, in T00000154 <00006.15> preparing this document for you, to put it together to T00000155 <00006.16> give you a sequence of how NASA goes about getting ready T00000156 ,<00006.17> for a flight, what some of the background associated T00000157 <00006.18> with the Space Shuttle System is, and then, finally, T00000158 <00006.19> tell you where we are with respect to the overall T00000159 <00006.20> investigation that we are currently working on right T00000160 <00006.21> now. T00000161 <00006.22> We will have to apologize because we probably T00000162 <00006.23> have some acronyms in our document here that may be kind T00000163 <00006.24> of difficult. Some of the charts that may come on the T00000164 <00006.25> television screens may be difficult to read, but we have T00000165 <00007.01> tried to put together the best set of information we T00000166 <00007.02> could in the time available to do it. T00000167 <00007.03> I would like to now proceed with the agenda, T00000168 <00007.04> please. T00000169 <00007.05> I plan to cover the overview, and then I would T00000170 <00007.06> ask various members involved in the Space Shuttle System TOOOo.0171 <00007.07> to cover respective parts of the Shuttle, and I will TOOOo.0172 <00007.08> start out by asking Arnold Aldrich, who is the Manager T00000173 <00.00.7.09> of the National Space Transportation Program Office at T00000174 <00007.10> the Johnson Space Center to talk about the orbiter T00000175 <00007.11 > system as well as to give you some background on the T00000176 <00007.12> Shuttle and overall performance, and then I will call T00000177

Reference Copy # 102 of I~E A~ f:\\>A\1 \IS F\Lt Reproduced at Nationai ArchIves and Records Aoministration

60670020 100000001 860305 200000002 HARRINGTON. J; NASA HQ 400000003 <00001.01> PRESIDENTIAL COMMISSION T00000004 <00001.02> ON THE T00000005 <00001.03> SPACE SHUTTLE CHALLENGER ACCIDENT T00000006 <00001.04> AFFIDAVIT T00000007 <00001.05> I. James C. Harrington. upon oath. declare and affirm that: T00000008 <00001.06> 1. I have been employed by NASA since August T00000009 <00001.07> 1976. Over this time I have held the positions T00000010 <00001.08> of both the Deputy Director and Director of the T00000011 <00001.09> Spacelab Program at NASA Headquarters. T00000012 <00001 .10> 2. I was appointed to the position of Director. T00000013 <00001.11> STS Program Integration Office. in June 1985 T00000014 <00001 .12> and currently occupy this position within the T00000015 <00001.13> Office of Space flight. T00000016 <00001.14> 3. As part of my current responsibilities. I T00000017 attend each STS launch as a member of the NASA T00000018 <00001.16> . Headquarters management team in support of Mr. T00000019 <00001.17> Jesse Moore. the Associate Administrator for T00000020 <00001.18> Space Flight. I was present at the time of the T00000021 <00001.19> Challenger accident on January 28. 1986. T00000022 <00001.20> 4. I attended the Fli9ht Readiness Review CFRR). T00000023 <00001 .21 > the L-l Day Review. and all subsequent Mission T00000024 <00001.22> Management Team CMMT) meetin9s pertainin9 to T00000025 <00001.23> the STS-51L Challenger launch. T00000026 <00001.24> s. Although I have no specific in-line decision T00000027 <00001.25> responsibilities regarding the launch decision T00000028 <00001.26> process. my responsibility during these periods T00000029 <00001.27> of launch support at KSC includes independent T00000030 <00001.28> advice to Mr. Moore and other specific tasks as T00000031 <00001.29> requested by Mr. Moore regarding other program T00000032 <00001.30> matters. T00000033 <00001.31> 6. In support of the STS-51L launch. I attended T00000034 <00001.32> the Ice Team Review chaired by Mr. A. Aldrich T00000035 <00001.33> at 9:00 a.m. on January 28. 1986. T00000036 <00002.01> 7. During the Ice Team Review. three areas of T00000037 <00002.02> concern were reviewed and analyzed: the ice on T00000038 <00002.03> the Fixed Service Structure CFSS); the ice on T00000039 <00002.04> the Mobile launch Platform (MLP) deck; and the T00000040 <00002.05> ice in the SRB trou9hs. T00000041 <00002.06> 8. The ice in the SRB troughs was removed and T00000042 <00002.07> posed no further concern. T00000043 <00002.08> 9. The ice on the FSS was analyzed by both NASA T00000044 <00002.09> JSC and Rockwell International CRI). Downey. T00000045 <00002.10> California. The analysis stated that the T00000046 <00002.11> trajectory of possible fallin9 ice would not T00000047 <00002.12> hit the Orbiter. T00000048 <00002.13> 10. Mr. R. Glaysher of RI raised a concern that ice T00000049 <00002.14> of the FSS and MPL was a situation that was T00000050 <00002.15> outside RI's experience and that RI could not T00000051 <00002.16> be sure of its affect on the Orbiter. He T00000052 <00002.17> stated that RI's concern re9ardin9 these T00000053 <00002.18> conditions prevented him from givin9 a "go for T00000054 <00002.19> launch" without reservations. T00000055 <00002.20> 11. To the best of my recollection. he never used T00000056 <00002.21> the term "safety of fli9ht" as he testified on T00000057 <00002.22> Thursday. February 28. 1986. before the T00000058 <00002.23> Commission. T00000059

Reference Copy #103 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

<00002.24> 12. Mr. Glaysher stated the concern in the manner T00000060 <00002.25> that is frequently used in the aerospace T00000061 <00002.26> community that he had a concern which could not T00000062 <00002.27> be quantified given the present data. The T00000063 <00002.28> stated concern centered around the degree of T00000064 <00002.29> Orbiter thermal protection system damage that T00000065 <00002.30> could be encountered. T00000066 <00002.31> 13. Mr. Aldrich responded to Mr. Glaysher's T00000067 <00002.32> concern, as well as to others' concerns, by T00000068 <00002.33> directing another Ice Team inspection at T-20 T00000069 <00002.34> minutes to launch. The Ice Team was also T00000070 <00002.35> instructed to sweep off any ice found on the T00000071 <00002.36> MLP deck. . T00000072 <00003.01> 14. At the conclusion of the meeting, Mr. Aldrich T00000073 <00003.02> polled the group for a "go for launch" subject T00000074 <00003.03> to the results of the next Ice Team report. T00000075 <00003.04> 15. Neither Mr. Glaysher, nor anyone else present, T00000076 <00003.05> voiced any objection to continuing the launch T00000071 <00003.06> . countdown. T00000078 <00003.07> Under penalty of perjury, I declare that the foregoing T00000079 <00003.08> statements are true and correct. T00000080 <00003.09> /s/ James C. Harrington T00000081 <00003.10> Director, STS Program Integration T00000082 <00003.11> Office of Space Flight T00000083 <00003.12> NASA Headquarters T00000084 <00003.13> Washington, D.C. 20546 T00000085 <00003.14> Sworn to and subscribed before me this 5th day of March T00000086 <00003.15> 1986. T00000087 <00003.16> /s/ Barbara J. Webb T00000088 E.N~ O~ <00003.17> Notary Public T00000089 <00003.18> My Commission expires: 11-14-90 T00000090 DCCUMEm AFFIDAVITS OF CHALLENGER COMMISSION; NASA HQ 700000091 "", 61110010 100000092 860418 200000093 TERRELL, N; NASA 400000094 TRAPNELL, E 500000095 <00001.01> NASA T00000096 <00001.02> National Aeronautics and Space Administration T00000097 <00001.03> Washington, D.C. 20546 T00000098 <00001.04> Reply to Attn. of: T00000099 <00001.05> NOTE TO: Dr. Keel T00000100 <00001.06> Attn: John Shepherd T00000101 <00001.07> SUBJECT: Data Transmittal T00000102 <00001.08> Enclosed is an affidavit by Norman Terrell as request by T00000103 <00001.09> Ms. Emily Trapnell. There was no formal action item for T00000104 <00001.10> this request. T00000105 <00001.11> /s/ Jay F. Honeycutt T00000106 <00001.12> for Richard H. Truly T00000107 <00001.13> 4/24/86 T00000108 <00001.14> Enclosure T00000109 <00001.15> RECEIPT OF THE ABOVE LISTED DOCUMENT IS HEREBY ACKNOWLEDGED T00000110 <00001.16> /s/Joleen Bottalew 4/24/86 T00000111 <00001.17> RECIPIENT DATE T00000112 <00001.18> AC4/24-3 TOOOOOl13 <00002.01> EXECUTIVE CORRESPONDENCE T00000114 <00002.02> AFFIDAVIT T00000115 <00002.03> I, Norman Terrell, being fully sworn, do hereby state T00000116 <00002.04> under oath as follows: T00000117 <00002.05> 1. I am the associate Administrator for Policy of T00000118

Reference Copy # 104 SAMPLE OF MFC \IN6:S ~)L£ Reproduced at1.',--;+nt. Archiv.tYand Records Administration

60660290 I V(y.,v.k~~ 100000001 860304 J 200000002 SIECK, ROBERT; NASA KSC 400000003 OMEN, DAVE; NASA KSC 400000004 RIDE, SALLY 500000005 <00001.01> PRESIDENTIAL COMMISSION ON THE T00000006 <00001.02> SPACE SHUTTLE CHALLENGER ACCIDENT T00000007 <00001.03> T00000008 <00001.05> INTERVIEW WITH T00000009 <00001.06> BOB SEIK AND DAVE OWEN T00000010 <00001.07> T00000011 <00001.08> TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 1986 T00000012 <00001.09> TOOOD0013 <00001.14> Kennedy Space Center T00000014 <00002.01> PRO C E E DIN G S TOOOOD015 <00002.02> QUESTION: Why don't you just make a statement TOOOOOD16 <00002.03> on there as to what this session is, and obviously we're T00000017 <00002.04> recording it. T00000018 <00002.05> QUESTION: Commission meeting with Bob Se;k on T00000019 <00002.06> the morning of Tuesday, February 4th -- March 4th. T00000020 <00002.07> MR. SEIK: We had prepared a number of things TOOOOD021 <00002.08> .for you folks based on the preliminary agenda we got T00000022 <00002.09> from Chris yesterday, but obviously we want to talk T00000023 <00002.10> about what you want to talk about. And maybe we ought T00000024 <00002.11> to start out that way. T00000025 <00002.12> But some of the material we've collected is T00000026 <00002.13> overtime data that goes back to STS-1 -- no, I'm sorry, T00000027 <00002.14> STS-9, when Lockheed came on board. And we also have T00000028 <00002.15> the people here to talk all aspects of the launch, T00000029 <00002.16> explain What, in our terms, what a launch team is, how T00000030 <00002.17> those people are managed, what type of shifts they're T00000031 <00002.18> on, what their responsibilities are, and kind of walk T00000032 <00002.19> you through what happens in a launch count in very T00000033 <00002.20> general terms, and then how we manage the recycling, T00000034 <00002.21> what that means in terms of the people and the crews; T00000035 <00002.22> and then obviously anything you want to talk about. T00000036 <00002.23> QUESTION: I think that sounds like really T00000037 <00002.24> good background information that we need, and the sort T00000038 '<00002.25> of things that we're interested in are what kind of T00000039 <00003.01> workloads are people pulling on a (inaudible>. So it T00000040 <00003.02> sounds like you've got the right idea of the sort of T00000041 <00003.03> things that we wanted to hear. T00000042 <00003.04> MR. SEIK: Well, maybe we ought to -- let's T00000043 <00003.05> talk a little bit about manpower and overtime, and why T00000044 <00003.06> don't you take these. T00000045 <00003.07> (Pause.> T00000046 <00003.08> And this is out of order, that's what it is, T00000047 <00003.09> because I've got '84 and '85 and '86's. Turn to the T00000048 <00003.10> last two charts, and that's the manpower numbers and the T00000049 <00003.11> summary of overtime for the last couple of months of T00000050 <00003.12> last year and the months of January and February of this T00000051 <00003.13> year. T00000052 <00003.14> And this is broken down by major organization T00000053 <00003.15> within Lockheed, and I won't bore you with go;ng through T00000054 <00003.16> what Lockheed's organization looks like, but I'll give T00000055 <00003.17> you copies of that and obviously you can go through it T00000056 <00003.18> and you may have questions. T00000057 <00003.19> But let me just callout some of the bottom T00000058 <00003.20> things here and then we can go into more detail. But T00000059

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<00003.21> the total work force that you see down there, T00000060 <00003.22> approximately 6,000 people, includes the whole SPC, T00000061 <00003.23> shuttle processing contractor, structure, which is T00000062 <00003.24> lockheed and Morton-Thiokol, Grumman, and (inaudible) T00000063 \<00003.25> people. T00000064 1<00004.01>. These are the equivalent manpowers for their T00000065 <00004.02> major organizations. T00000066 <00004.03> The overtime down there is percentage overtime T00000067 <00004.04> for that week, and that number needs some T00000068 <00004.05> qualification. The STS-32 we planned on launching the T00000069 <00004.06> 19th of December, you recall, and we had a scrub due to T00000070 <00004.07> an SRB problem. T00000071 <00004.08> That week of 12/20 would have been high, but T00000072 <00004.09> that 22 percent, that also includes the people that T00000073 <00004.10> worked the holidays leading up to Christmas to repair T00000074 <00004.11> that problem with the SRB hydraulic unit. Any work done T00000075 <00004.12> on the 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, was charged as overtime T00000076 <00004.13> and it factored back into that week of 12/20. That's TOOOOOOn <00004.14> why the week of 12/27 shows (inaudible). T00000078 <00004.15> So the overtime would have been high there T00000079 <00004.16> anyway, but it wouldn't have been 20-some percent. T00000080 <00004.17> Again, that's 20 percent for an equivalent work force of T00000081 <00004.18> almost 6,000 people. T00000082 <00004.19> QUESTION: Does that mean 20 percent of the T00000083 <00004.20> people worked overtime or 20 percent of their hours were T00000084 <00004.21> overtime hours? T00000085 <00004.22> MR. SEIK: That means that, of a work force of T00000086 <00004.23> 5900 people, everybody there worked approximately a 48 T00000087 <00004.24> hour work week. T00000088 <00004.25> QUESTION: Okay. T00000089 <00005.01> MR. SEIK: But with that qualification that T00000090 <00005.02> everybody who worked the 22nd, 23rd, and 24th, all of T00000091 <00005.03> those numbers got factored into the 12/20 number. If a T00000092 <00005.04> person just worked eight hours on the 22nd of December, T00000093 <00005.05> that was eight hours overtime. T00000094 <00005.06> QUESTION: Some of these people didn't work T00000095 <00005.07> overtime, you have to assume, right? T00000096 <00005.08> MR. SEIK: That's right. And we've got a T00000097 <00005.09> further break -­ T00000098 <00005.10> QUESTION: Some of them worked a lot more than T00000099 <00005.11> 48 hours? T00000100 <00005.12> MR. SEIK: Some did, absolutely. And now we T00000101 <00005.13> need to talk from this. Dave. T00000102 <00005~14> I got one of those. You just pass those out. T00000103 <00005.15> (Pause.) T00000104 <00005.16> MR. SEIK: Okay, why don't you walk through T00000105 <00005.17> the highlights of that, Dave, if you would. T00000106 <00005.18> MR. OWEN: Okay. T00000107 <00005.19> QUESTION: Dave, just for the purpose of the T00000108 <00005.20> tape, if you don't mind identifying yourself, so that we T00000109 <00005.21> know who's talking, we'd appreciate it. T00000110 <00005.22> MR. OWEN: I'm Dave Owen, executive vice T00000111 <00005.23> president and deputy program manager. T00000112 <00005.24> QUESTION: Thank you, Dave. TOOOOOl13 <00005.25> MR. OWEN: What this chart represents is the T00000114 <00006.01> overtime percenta~e at the second level directorate, TOOOOOl15 <00006.02> which is in questlon. You see the things that are T00000116 <00006.03> significant which we picked up from June on. The bottom T00000117 <00006.04> of the chart, you see the various flows we picked and T00000118

Reference Copy #106 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration <00006.05> how these flows correlate with the overtime during these T00000119 <00006.06> months and periods. T00000120 <00006.07> QUESTION: Just for my curiosity, what does T00000121 <00006.08> "second level directorate" mean? T00000122 <00006.09> MR. OWEN: Second level directorate is -- the T00000123 <00006.10> vice president of operations would be first level T00000124 <00006.11> directorate. The second level directorate would be -­ T00000125 <00006.12> MR. SEIK: This is an organization chart which T00000126 <00006.13> we can make some copies of. There is a second level T00000127 <00006.14> directorate, there is a directorate for operations, T00000128 <00006.15> there is one for engineering, there is one for quality, T00000129 <00006.16> there is one for support. T00000130 <00006.17> It's just the or~anizational breakdown, I T00000131 <00006.18> guess is the way to put 1t. T00000132 <00006.19> QUESTION: Okay, I see. T00000133 <00006.20> MR. OWEN: And this is second level T00000134 <00006.21> directorate, would be the organization reporting to the T00000135 <00006.22> director. T00000136 <00006.23> QUESTION: Okay. T00000137 <00006.24> MR. SEIK: I'm going to make sure you get T00000138 <00006.25> copies of that. T00000139 <00007.01> MR. OWEN: What we're attempting to do here by T00000140 <00007.02> way of explanation is just to highlight, 20 percent on T00000141 <00007.03> overtime against those particular organizations and T00000142 <00007.04> correlate them as to the STS flow. And you will note on T00000143 <00007.05> the right-hand side of this chart the summary that T00000144 <00007.06> relates to a number that's applied against the overtime T00000145 <00007.07> figure which is on the line~ T00000146 <00007.08> For instance, if you would look at OPF T00000147 <00007.09> operations, 23XX, here in October, you will see 23.10 T00000148 <00007.10> percent overtime for that month. Item one, and I'm T00000149 <00007.11> referring to the top of the right-hand chart, rollout of T00000150 <00007.12> 099 and 102, accelerated to avoid holiday work, and T00000151 <00007.13> stacking and launch. That 104 also is accelerated T00000152 <00007.14> during that period of time. T00000153 <00007.15> So what we attempted to do here is essence was T00000154 <00007.16> we wanted to get the vehicle to the pad, get it there T00000155 <00007.17> early so we could do our pad checkout prior to launch. T00000156 <00007.18> Plus, our philosophy was to give people, give them the T00000157 <00007.19> overtime so we could give them days off the holidays. T00000158 <00007.20> QUESTION: Did they get those days off as it T00000159 <00007.21> turns out? T00000160 <00007.22> MR. OWEN: Yes, they most certainly did. T00000161 <00007.23> QUESTION: So you're talking about like the T00000162 <00007.24> Thanksgiving holidays? T00000163 <00007.25> MR. OWEN: Right. T00000164 <00008.01> QUESTION: Okay. T00000165 <00008.02> QUESTION: Right now I remember, since you T00000166 <00008.03> guys worked so hard just before the holidays, I had to T00000167 <00008.04> work in mission control for your flight over the T00000168 <00008.05> holidays. T00000169 <00008.06> QUESTION: So during the period of time that T00000170 <00008.07> you got this 23XX overtime values here of 23 percent, so T00000171 <00008.08> it's the time that the Challenger SRB's were actually T00000172 <00008.09> stacked? All of this was ongoing at the same time? T00000173 <00008.10> You're trying to get Challenger out? T00000174 <00008.11> MR. OWEN: (inaudible). The first week in T00000175 <00008.12> December. TOOOOD176 <00008.13> QUESTION: Okay. T00000177

~ j)CCvM~ CON Ti N VcS

Reference Copy #107 ])\~R t=\l E OF Reprodu'Ce

60370110 100000001 <;TA~T L 860206 200000002 MOORE, JESSE NASA 400000003 H.i 500000004 cc- ROGERS, WILLIAM P. b C(.\,) RIDE, SAllY 500000005 "1 eNT ARMSTRONG, NEIL A. 500000006 HOTZ, ROBERT B. 500000007 WALKER, ARTHUR B. 500000008 RUMMEL, ROBERT W. 500000009 ACHESON, DAVID C. 500000010 WHEELON, ALBERT D. 500000011 FEYNMAN, RICHARD P. 500000012 KUTYNA, DONALD J. 500000013 <00001.01> (OPEN) HEARING TRANSCRIPT T00000014 <00001.03> FEBRUARY 6, 1986 T00000015 <00001.05> DR. WILLIAM R. GRAHAM T00000016 <00001.07> 5 JESSE MOORE: Associate Administrator for T00000017 <00001.08> Space Flight, NASA T00000018 <00001.09> NOW ARNOLD ALDRICH Manager of Program T00000019 <00001.10> TRULY Johnson Space Center T00000020 <00001.11 > 9 MOORE: Customer Services and Business T00000021 <00001.12> Planning, Space Transportation T00000022 <00001.13> System Orbitor and Logistics T00000023 <00001.14> Line Divisions: Division, Propulsion Division, T00000024 <00001.15> and STS Operations Division T00000025 <00001.16> 12 Johnson Space Center for Flight Operations T00000026 <00001.17> responsible for Liftoff, flight, orbital T00000027 <00001.18> operations, landing. T00000028 <00001.19> 13 Kennedy Space Center - responsibility for T00000029 <00001.20> launch and launch facilities. T00000030 <00001.21> Marshall Space Flight Center - controls Shuttle T00000031 <00001.22> Main Engines (SSME), External Tank (E.T.), T00000032 <00001.23> Solid Rocket Boosters (SRB) and Spacelab. , T00000033 <00001.24> National Space Technology Laboratories (NSTL) ­ T00000034 <00001.25> test facilities for testing main engines. T00000035 <00001.26> 14 Evolution of Shuttle T00000036 <00001.27> April 1981 - late 1982: Orbital Flight Test T00000037 <00001.28> Phase. T00000038 ;<00001.29> Four Missions T00000039 '<00001.30> 15 Early Payload Capability T00000040 <00001.31> Demonstration Phase: Late 1982 T00000041 <00001.32> 16 Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) on 51-L. T00000042 <00001.33> 16 Payload Operational Phase T00000043 <00001.34> 18 Before 51-L, launches were from Pad A. 51-L T00000044 <00001.35> launched from Pad B. TFRS (Tracking Data Relay T00000045 <00001.36> Satellite) major cargo element on flight. T00000046 <00001.37> 18-19 Filament wound case to be flown on SRB's to T00000047 <00001.38> replace steel cases. T00000048 <00001.39> 19 Filament wound case was graphic/epoxy. T00000049 <00001.40> 19 Centaur G prime is upper stage, fits into T00000050 <00001.41> shuttle bay-launch two planetary missions T00000051 <00001.42> planned for May. T00000052 <00002.02> 20 Consolidated Space Operations Center - joint T00000053 <00002.03> DOD program where DOD'would take over and do T00000054 <00002.04> some operations of shuttle in Colorado - 1990's. T00000055 <00002.06> 21-23 OV-99 Challenger T00000056 <00002.07> OV-102 Columbia (first) T00000057 <00002.08> Challenger was second orbitor delivered. T00000058 <00002.09> OV-103 Discovery (third delivered) T00000059

Reference Copy #108 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

<00002.10> OV-104 Atlantis T00000060 <00002.11> 24 41-A:4 = fiscal year T00000061 <00002.12> 1 = launch area 1 KSC T00000062 <00002.13> 2 Vandenberg T00000063 <00002.14> A = sequence T00000064 <00002.15> 25 51-L was moved into next fiscal year. T00000065 <00002.16> 26 One prior launch abort T00000066 <00002.17> One prior main engine shut down during ascent T00000067 <00002.18> 27 Complete documentation of each flight. T00000068 <00002.19> 28 NASA has not relaxed during program T00000069 <00002.20> 28 Graphite/epoxy SRBs scheduled for initial T00000070 <00002.21> Vandenberg launch-summer 1986. T00000071 <00002.22> 29 Not sure they can reuse graphite/epoxy casings. T00000072 <00002.23> 30 Minor design changes in SRBr s since start of T00000073 <00002.24> program. Twenty times is number that boosters T00000074 <00002.25> reused. 51-L had maximum of two-three uses in T00000075 <00002.26> SRB parts. T00000076 <00002.27> 33 Mission of STS flight 51-L:Cargo bay is 15 feet T00000077 <00002.28> by 60 feet. Maximum of eight people up to this T00000078 <00002.29> point. TDRS (second) on board. T00000079 <00002.30> Spartan-Halley, Comet Halley observation, T00000080 <00002.31> Teacher in space Program. T00000081 <00002.32> CHAMP: Comet Halley Active T00000082 <00002.33> Monitoring Program (fluid dynamics) T00000083 <00002.34> Student Experiments T00000084 <00002.35> RMS (Remote Manipulator Systems) arm. T00000085 <00002.36> 35 NASA Had two arms (RMS) IUS to boost TDRS to T00000086 <00002.37> GSO. TRDS is 5-6,000 pounds. T00000087 <00002.38> 36 STS 51-L lift off 11:38 a.m. January 28, 1986. T00000088 <00002.39> SRB staging planned for 128 seconds. E.T. T00000089 <00002.40> planned to detach at 523 seconds. Mission T00000090 <00002.41> planned for six days plus. T00000091 <00002.42> 37 MAX Q: Maximum dynamic phase. T00000092 <00002.43> Throttle down occurs at MAX Q T00000093 <00002.44> Nominal engine profile of 104 percent T00000094 <00002.45> of rated power. T00000095 <00003.01> 37 No extra special heavy load on this flight. T00000096 <00003.02> 38 SRB's ignite six - seven seconds after main T00000097 ,<00003.03> engine start. T00000098 '<00003.04> 39 SRB's thrust stays constant during burn. There T00000099 <00003.05> is some gimbaling motion. T00000100 <00003.06> 41 Inclination of planned orbit 28.45 degrees. T00000101 <00003.07> Orbital altitude 153 1/2 nautical miles T00000102 <00003.08> circular. T00000103 <00003.09> Inclination is orbit relative to the latitude T00000104 <00003.10> of where launched and is inclination relative T00000105 <00003.11> to polar inclination. T00000106 <00003.12> 42 Edwards was a planned landing abort site. T00000107 <00003.13> Also, Dakar Senegal, and Casablanca, Morocco. T00000108 <00003.14> 43 RTLS: Return to launch Site Abort after T00000109 <00003.15> separation of the solids, KSC. T00000110 <00003.16> 44 First day for 51-L meetings was January 25th. T00000111 <00003.17> Launch was anticipated January 26th. L-1 Day T00000112 <00003.18> Review - Participants· include Jesse Moore, his T00000113 <00003.19> senior managers, NASA Center people, directors, T00000114 <00003.20> contractor senior people. Meeting occurred at T00000115 <00003.21> 11 :00 a.m., January 26th. Met again at 9:30 T00000116 <00003.22> p.m. Decided weather was no go Sunday a.m. so T00000117 <00003.23> postponed. Sunday did turn out okay for one T00000118

Reference Copy # 109 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

<00003.24> hour. T00000119 <00003.25> 46 Rain a problem, visibility can be problem. T00000120 <00003.26> 47 MMT (Mission Management Team) meeting at 2:00 T00000121 <00003.27> p.m. on January 26th. Decision to attempt T00000122 ,<00003.28> launch on 9:37 a.m. on Monday January 27th. T00000123 <00003.29> 48 delay on January 27th morning: Microswitch T00000124 <00003.30> indicated open and should have been closed. It T00000125 <00003.31> was closed but one of Ground Support Equipment T00000126 <00003.32> (GSE) attached to orbitor door wouldn't come T00000127 <00003.33> off in timely fashion (A nut plate was loose.) T00000128 <00003.34> Had to hacksaw the GSE off. T00000129 <00003.35> 49 By the time GSE off there were high T00000130 <00003.36> crosswinds. (30 knots where limit is 15.) T00000131 <00003.37> RTlS crosswinds. So launch scrubbed. T00000132 <00003.38> 50 MMT meeting again at 2:00 p.m. January 27th. T00000133 <00003.39> launch attempt on 28th. Weather prediction was T00000134 <00003.40> temperature -- to be cold - down to mid-20's. T00000135 <00003.41> Main concern was water pipe freeze on launch T00000136 <00003.42> . pad. launch team instructed to shoot for 9:38 T00000137 <00003.43> a.m. T00000138 <00000.01> 51 Pipe broke so launch delayed one hour till T00000139 <00000.02> 10:30 p.m. Concern re ice buildup on laun~h T00000140 <00000.03> tower. Major technical meeting held to assess T00000141 <00000.04> ice chaired by Arnie Aldrich of JSC. Delay T00000142 <00000.05> another hour and let ice team go out 20 minutes T00000143 <00000.06> before launch. They did. Decision to launch T00000144 <00000.07> at 11: 38. . T00000145 <00000.08> 52 After the 27th launch attempt, vehicle was T00000146 <00000.09> ftsafed" -- fuel drained. T00000147 <00000.10> 53 Vehicle taken to launch pad on December 21, T00000148 <00000.11> 1985. T00000149 <00000.12> 53 Aldrich reported that technical meeting gave T00000150 <00000.13> everything okay on the temperature standpoint. T00000151 <00000.14> 55 Temperature not presented to Moore as a concern T00000152 :"<00000.15> with regard to the effect on SRBs. T00000153 <00000.16> 56 Ascent appeared normal for first 23 seconds. T00000154 <00000.17> Shuttle went through main program roll, through T00000155 <00000.18> MAX Q, throttle down and up. All flight T00000156 ,<00000.19> controllers reported nominal performance. T00000157 <00000.20> 57 Immediate impounding of data. Graham asked T00000158 <00000.21> Moore to form Mishap Investigation Board: T00000159 <00000.22> Director, KSC T00000160 <00000.23> Director, MSC T00000161 <00000.24> Arnold Aldrich, National STS Program Manager T00000162 <00000.25> Ed Johnson T00000163 <00000.26> Walt Wi 11 i ams T00000164 <00000.27> Robert Crippen T00000165 <00000.28> Joe Cunan, Director of Space and light Science T00000166 <00000.29> John O'Brien, Chief Counsel NASA T00000167 <00000.30> Milt Silvera, Chief Engineer NASA T00000168 <00000.31> Jim Harrington, Director STS Integration T00000169 <00000.32> 58 Throttle down from 104 percent at 20 seconds to T00000170 <00000.33> 94 percent until 36 seconds, 65 percent at T00000171 <00000.34> 36-39 seconds, 104 percent from 52-57 seconds. T00000172 <00000.35> This varies according to loads, cargo, etc. T00000173 <00000.36> 60 Mach 1.8 at explosion . T00000174 . <00000.37> Q alpha = dynamic pressure T0000017 5 <00000.38> Parameter versus angle of attack T00000176 <00000.39> Do this calculation based upon wind T00000177

Reference Copy #110 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

<00000.40> profile and load points on wings. T00000178 <00000.41> Balloons give them wind profile. T00000179 <00000.42> 61 Throttle controlled by automatic (computer) on T00000180 <00000.43> nominal ascent. Crew can control it, if T00000181 <00000.44> trouble. T00000182 <00000.01> "Quality records." T00000183 <00000.02> 63 Photos indicated a plume on right hand SRB. T00000184 <00000.03> 64 National Transportation Safety Board assisting T00000185 <00000.04> with presentation and layout of wreckage. T00000186 <00000.05> Reflections on the photos. At 58.3 seconds you T00000187 <00000.06> can see tail of orbiter. T00000188 <00000.07> 65 At 59.8 seconds a plume shows up in area of T00000189 <00000.08> right hand SRB. At 73 seconds, plume has grown T00000190 <00000.09> and merged into tail from engines and other T00000191 <00000.10> solid. Difficult to pin down exact location of T00000192 <00000.11> plume. T00000193 <00000.12> 66 Can't tell whether plume in aft center segment, T00000194 <00000.13> structural attachment to E.T., or SRB. T00000195 DIGEST OF CHALLENGER COMMISSION HEARING; DC 700000196 60370120 100000197 860206 200000198 ALDRICH, ARNOLD D.; NASA JSC 400000199 ROGERS, WILLIAM P. 500000200 RIDE, SALLY 500000201 ARMSTRONG, NEIL A. 500000202 HOTZ, ROBERT B. 500000203 WALKER, ARTHUR B. 500000204 RUMMEL, ROBERT W. 500000205 ACHESON, DAVID C. 500000206 WHEELON, ALBERT D. 500000207 FEYNMAN, RICHARD P. 500000208 KUTYNA, DONALD J. 500000209 <00006.01> 693E ARNOLD ALDRICH, Manager, National STS Program: T00000210 <00006.02> JSC T00000211 <00006.03> 69 Will describe STS System elements, system T00000212 <00006.04> element performance, and some orbitor T00000213 <00006.05> SUbsystems. T00000214 <00006.06> Level I control in D.C. under Jesse Moore, T00000215 :<00006.07> Associate Administrator for Space Flight. T00000216 ·<00006.08> 71 Small staff at NASA, headquarters for policy, T00000217 <00006.09> overall budget, and overall program direction. T00000218 <00006.10> Large program office at JSC responsible for T00000219 <00006.11> control of all elements of Space Shuttle System. T00000220 <00006.12> Project managers at the centers are in line T00000221 <00006.13> responsibility and report through directors to T00000222 <00006.14> Moore in institutional fashion as well as T00000223 <00006.15> through program chain within Level II program T00000224 <00006.16> office. T00000225 <00006.17> 72 Use extensive teleconferencing system. T00000226 <00006.18> Government industry team that falls under T00000227 <00006.19> National Space Transportation System. Overall T00000228 <00006.20> policy and direction is NASA Headquarters. JSC T00000229 <00006.21> lead center is for program planning and T00000230 <00006.22> control, system, cargo integration of total T00000231 <00006.23> system, operations and mission integration. T00000232 <00006.24> 73 Rockwell International Space Division is in T00000233 <00006.25> charge of cargo integration and engineering and T00000234 <00006.26> support of STS program. T00000235 <00006.27> Orbitor: OSC Rockwell Space Division Prime T00000236

Reference Copy #111 100000001 60730100 200000002 ~TA~T ""1, 860311 400000003 LUCAS, DR. WILLIAM; NASA MSFC OF=. <00001.01> Tape recording begins at this point. T00000004 1<00001.02> PRESS CONFERENCE OF T00000005 D9'-vMENT '<00001.03> DR. WILLIAM LUCAS, DIRECTOR, T00000006 <00001.04> MARSHALL SPACE FLIGHT CENTER T00000007 <00001.05> VOICE: If you would identify yourselves T00000008 <00001.06> because Dr. Lucas won't know you all. T00000009 <00001.07> (General conversation.) T00000010 <00001.08> QUESTION: Dr. Lucas, do you feel partially T00000011 <00001.09> responsible in any way for the loss of the Challenger T00000012 <00001.10> and the crew, or do any of your top people that made the T00000013 <00001.11> decision the night before the launch? T00000014 <00001.12> DR. LUCAS: I think all of NASA feels a very T00000015 <00001.13> deep responsibility for the loss of Challenger. The T00000016 <00001.14> Marshall Space Flight Center. being a very important T00000017 <00001.15> element of NASA and a very important element of the T00000018 <00001.16> Shuttle system. feels responsible for the performance of T00000019 <00001.17> the Challenger. T00000020 <00001.18> QUESTION: Dr. Lucas, Dan Molina from NBC. T00000021 <00001.19> What's your opinion of the way the Commission T00000022 <00001.20> is working right now. the direction they're going. the T00000023 <00001.21> substance of their questions? Are they getting to the T00000024 <00001.22> points that you think are important right now. and do T00000025 <00001.23> you feel that you and your colleagues are being fairly T00000026 <00001.24> treated by it? T00000027 <00001.25> QUESTION: Do you thlnk also you are T00000028 <00002.01> communicating with them well? T00000029 <00002.02> DR. LUCAS: Well, that's several questions. T00000030 <00002.03> but I really do not know all the things in which the T00000031 <00002.04> Commission is involved. I am sure the Commission has a T00000032 <00002.05> very heavy responsibility. The Commission is made up of T00000033 <00002.06> extraordinarily capable people. I believe, and I am sure T00000034 <00002.07> that they are pursuing the problem in the way that they T00000035 <00002.08> think is going to lead them to the answers. NASA has T00000036 <00002.09> been I believe totally cooperative with the Commission T00000037 <00002.10> from the very outset. We have pledged that. and so far T00000038 <00002.11> as I know, everything that they've asked for. every T00000039 <00002.12> piece of documentation. every person that they've asked T00000040 <00002.13> for so far as I know has been supplied. and if that T00000041 <00002.14> hasn't been the case. we certainly will if they bring T00000042 <00002.15> those things to our attention. T00000043 <00002.16> QUESTION: They've flatly said now. Mr. Rogers T00000044 <00002.17> has flatly said that there wasa-- the decisionmaking T00000045 <00002.18> process was flawed. He has said it twice now; he said T00000046 <00002.19> it flatly yesterday. T00000047 <00002.20> What's your assessment of that evaluation? T00000048 <00002.21> DR. LUCAS: I'm not sure what Mr. Rogers means T00000049 <00002.22> in terms of the decision process being flawed. I do not T00000050 <00002.23> believe that the decision process that I know and T00000051 <00002.24> understand to be flawed. The process of delegating to T00000052 <00002.25> various levels in the program the responsibility to make T00000053 <00003.01> decisions within their own purview and within the T00000054 <00003.02> pre-established guidelines, as long as that does not T00000055 <00003.03> affect another level. I believe that that is a T00000056 <00003.04> reasonable process. . T00000057 <00003.05> Throughout the whole history of NASA we have T00000058 <00003.06> made decisions at various levels. There are just T00000059

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<00003.07> hundreds of decisions that have to be made every day in 100000060 <00003.08> preparing for a launch and in executing a launch, and it T00000061 <00003.09> is impossible for all of those to come to the top. So I T00000062 <00003.10> believe the pyramiding of the decisionmaking process to 100000063 <00003.11> be a sound process. When one is involved in that kind 100000064 <00003.12> of thing, you always have to depend upon human beings, T00000065 <00003.13> and most human beings are not perfect. So sometimes 100000066 <00003.14> there may be an error in judgment, and I don't know that 100000067 <00003.15> that was the case here at all, but one is always subject 100000068 <00003.16> to that, and I do not view the process, as I understand T00000069 <00003.17> it, to be flawed. 100000070 <00003.18> VOICE: Dan Miron. T00000071 <00003.19> QUESTION: (Inaudible), UPI. Sir, what I got T00000072 <00003.20> out of your testimony yesterday was you were not aware 100000073 <00003.21> of what the people under you were doing. 100000074 <00003.22> Is that the impression you wanted to leave T00000075 <00003.23> with the Commission, and would you like to clarify that T00000076 <00003.24> or discuss that further? 100000077 <00003.25> VOICE: I would be happy to discuss that 100000078 <00004.01> further. I think the statement that I made yesterday 100000079 <00004.02> was that I heard about 7:00 p.m. on the 27th of January 100000080 <00004.03> from two individuals of the Marshall Space Flight 100000081 <00004.04> Center, Mr. Stan Reinartz, who is the Director of the T00000082 <00004.05> Shuttle Projects Office, and Larry Mulloy, who is the 100000083 <00004.06> Director of the Solid Rocket Booster Project, that some 100000084 <00004.07> people at Thiokol had raised concerns about the 100000085 <00004.08> potential effect of the weather upon the solid rocket T00000086 <00004.09> booster. Ihey told me at that occasion that they were 100000087 <00004.10> going out to the Kennedy Space Center to engage in a 100000088 <00004.11> teleconference, telephone conversation with the most T00000089 <00004.12> knowledgeable experts here at the Marshall Space Flight 100000090 <00004.13> Center and the people at the Wasatch Division of Thiokol T00000091 <00004.14> to consider these concerns. And my response to that was T00000092 <00004.15> fine, that's the thing to do, keep me informed. 100000093 <00004.16> At about 5:00 a.m. the next morning when I 100000094 <00004.17> went to the launch control center, I inquired as to how 100000095 <00004.18> the concerns were resolved and was told that we did have T00000096 <00004.19>a-- that oir people did have a very extensive 100000097 \<00004.20> discussion with the people back at Wasatch Division and 100000098 <00004.21> at Huntsville, that the matter was resolved, that there 100000099 <00004.22> was a unanimous position with a recommendation for 100000100 <00004.23> Thiokol to continue with the launching, and that was 100000101 <00004.24> concurred in by the experts back here at the Marshall T00000102 <00004.25> Space Flight Center, and therefore there was no issue. 100000103 <00005.01> Now, that is the story. There have been many T00000104 <00005.02> things that have come out since that time, some in T00000105 <00005.03> testimony during this week that I was not aware of at T00000106 <00005.04> Thiokol. I was not in those meetings, so I could not 100000107 <00005.05> possibly be informed on everything that went on, as I am 100000108 <00005.06> not informed on everything that goes on in most any 100000109 <00005.07> consideration here at the Center. We have several T00000110 <00005.08> different projects that we are responsible for. I try T00000111 <00005.09> to keep informed on all of them at the top, but do not 100000112 <00005.10> involve myself in the details of the decisionmaking at 100000113 <00005.11> the lower levels. I'm not even sufficiently competent 100000114 <00005.12> to do that, as I doubt many people would be. 100000115 <00005.13> Does that respondto-­ T00000116 <00005.14> QUESTION: Sir? 100000117 <00005.15> VOICE: Mr. Fishman? 100000118

Reference Copy #113 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

<00005.16> QUESTION: Carl Fishman from the Washington TOOOOOl19 <00005.17> Post. T00000120 <00005.18> There is obviously something to be learned T00000121 <00005.19> from what happened, both about the technology and the T00000122 '<00005.20> decisionmaking process, whether or not it appeared to be T00000123 <00005.21> flawed in advance. T00000124 <00005.22> Do you intend atthis-- do you see at this T00000125 <00005.23> point any changes that need to be made in the SRB T00000126 <00005.24> joints, technology end of it, or in the decisionmaking T00000127 <00005.25> process as it has been reviewed? Will you ask for T00000128 <00006.01> either of those to be reviewed changed at this point? T00000129 <00006.02> DR. LUCAS: Well, let me say at the outset T00000130 <00006.03> that so far as I know, no one knows what the case of T00000131 <00006.04> this launch failure was at this moment. Attention has T00000132 <00006.05> focused on the solid rocket boosters because obviously T00000133 <00006.06> one can see hot gases issuing from that booster prior to T00000134 <00006.07> the explosion that occurred. So attention has been T00000135 <00006.08> focused on that. T00000136 <00006.09> To my knowledge, we do not have evidence yet T00000137 <00006.10> as to whether or not the solid booster was the principal T00000138 <00006.11> cause or the beginning cause, the root cause, and if so, T00000139 <00006.12> wdhat aspect of that gave rise to the failure? T00000140 <00006.13> So I want to emphasize that to my knowledge, T00000141 <00006.14> we do not know the spcific cause yet. T00000142 <00006.15> QUESTION: Right. T00000143 <00006.16> DR. LUCAS: To the extent that we do, and when T00000144 <00006.17> we find out what that cause is, you can be assured that T00000145 <00006.18> whatever corrections are indicated will indeed be made. T00000146 <00006.19> QUESTION: But the flaws of the SRB joint have T00000147 <00006.20> been reviewed extensively, or the limitations of it. T00000148 <00006.21> You don't think it's in need of revision at T00000149 <00006.22> this point? T00000150 <00006.23> DR. LUCAS: Letme-- I think I need to answer T00000151 <00006.24> that as fully as possible, to say that the issue that ;s T00000152 <00006.25> being discussed now is the potential effect of T00000153 <00007.01> temperature on that joint. When you have two launches T00000154 <00007.02> or any number of launches and ~ne of them doesn't go as T00000155 <00007.03> well as the other, you begin immediately to considering T00000156 \<00007.04> what's different about this one from the 24 others, and T00000157 '<00007.05> one thing that's unmistakably different is the T00000158 <00007.06> temperature. T00000159 <00007.07> The temperature on the day of that launch was T00000160 <00007.08> lower than we have experienced before. So one begins to T00000161 <00007.09> ask why are the things on this vehicle that could have T00000162 <00007.10> been affected by temperature? And so the attention has T00000163 <00007.11> focused on that joint. And I don't know today whether T00000164 <00007.12> the temperature had ani effect on it or not. T00000165 <00007.13> Going back to this joint, though, sincethe-- T00000166 <00007.14> I believe it was the second launch, the STS-2 that we T00000167 <00007.15> called it at that time, we did get some evidence after T00000168 <00007.16> reassembly of the joint that there had been some erosion T00000169 <00007.17> on the primary O-ring seals. After that we did some T00000170 <00007.18> structural testing that identified that what has been T00000171 <00007.19> referred to as rotation of thejoint-- I don't know if T00000172 <00007.20> you understand what it's talking about. I don't want to T00000173 <00007.21> tell you a lot of things you don't want to know, but T00000174 <00007.22> this rotation of the joint after the generation of the T00000175 <00007.23> full pressure in the rocket motor could result in some T00000176 <00007.24> relieving of pressure on the O-ring seal. T00000177

Reference Copy #114 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration <00007.25> Based upon this observation, then, the A1 ency T00000178 <00008.01> took upon itself to change the designation of thlS seal T00000179 <00008.02> from 1R to " Criticality 1R to 1, 1R meaning there is T00000180 <00008.03> complete redundancy, 1 meaning there is not redundancy. T00000131 ~<00008.04> Now,1R-- that is not an unusual thing for us T00000182 ·<00008.05> to have. In fact, I think there are probably, I don't T00000183 <00008.06> know how many, but probably 750 to 1000 Criticality 1 T00000184 <00008.07> items in the Shuttle stack, so that's not unusual. We T00000185 <00008.08> have had some evidence of problems with the key seal on, T00000186 <00008.09> I believe it's six occasions during the course of the T00000187 <00008.10> flight, and perhaps as many as 15 or 16 occasions in the T00000188 <00008.11> nozzle joint. Each and every time that has occurred we T00000189 <00008.12> have addressed that very carefully in preparation for T00000190 <00008.13> the next flight. T00000191 <0000.8.14> You see, we have an advantage with the soli d T00000192 <00008.15> rocket boosters on the Shuttle that has not been T00000193 <00003.16> experienced in any other solidrocket-- any other large T00000194 <00008.17> solid rocket program. One doesn't now how those would T00000195 <00008.18> behave because they haven't been recovered, but we T00000196 <00008.19> recover all of ours, completely disassemble the T00000197 <00008.20> hardware, evaluate the joints, the a-rings, and so T00000198 <00008.21> forth, and that's how we found these particular T00000199 <00008.22> problems. And after each case where we had noted a T00000200 <00008.23> problem, we then dispositioneddata-- maybe that T00000201 <00008.24> terminology is notgood-- we considered that, evaluated T00000202 <00008.25> why that might have happened, and evaluated whether that T00000203 <00009.01> would be a concern for the next flight or not. And that T00000204 <00009.02> was handled in that fashion' through every level of the T00000205 <00009.03> Agency. T00000206 <00009.04> So there has been no level of the Agency that T00000207 <00009.05> has not been aware of and has not considered the T00000208 <00009.06> prospects of launch in view of the problems that we've T00000209 <00009.07> had on the a-ring seals. T00000210 <00009.08> Approximately, I think it was about April of T00000211 <00009.09> last year, following the launch of 51-C, we noticed for T00000212 <00009.10> the first time some erosion on the secondary a-rings of T00000213 <00009.11> the booster seal, and we began immediately to say, well, T00000214 <00009.12> let's look at this thing again and assure ourselves that T00000215 \<00009.13> we still have a reasonable situation, and we concluded T00000216 <00009.14> that we should do some things not just to make the T00000217 <00009.15> vehicle safe, but to increase our margin of safety. And T00000218 <00009.16> that was started about last June or July, and in fact, T00000219 <00009.17> in July of last year Marshall Space Flight Center caused T00000220 <00009.18> to be ordered some hardware that would provide at least T00000221 <00009.19> one method of increasing the margin of safety of this T00000222 <00009.20> particular joint. T00000223 <00009.21> And since that time, consideration of that has T00000224 <00009.22> proceeded, and those modifications were incorporated in T00000225 <00009.23> what we call QM-5, or qualification motor 5 for the T00000226 <00009.24> filament wound case. Those fixes were incorporated in T00000227 <00009.25> that case and would have been fired in January had we T00000228 <00010.01> not had this incident. T00000229 <00010.02> Does thatanswer-­ T00000230 <00010.03> VOICE: Bob Dunovan? T00000231 <00010.04> QUESTION: Well,I'm-­ T00000232 <00010.05> QUESTION: Will the joint fly again as it is T00000233 <00010.06> now? T00000234 <00010.07> DR. LUCAS: I don't know if it will fly again T00000235 <00010.08> or not. If we find that that joint was the cause of T00000236

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Reference Copy #115 or- 'Rv-P6 Q T( FILE keproduced-at'NatiOll-al ~chives and Records Administration

12850070 100000001 310799 200000002 c:;,A~T BAEKER, JAMES B; JH HIGGINS 400000003 MACIDULL, J 500000004 Of­ .<00001.01 > SPACE SHUTTLE T00000005 :<00001 .02> RANGE SAFETY HAZARDS T00000006 ·Doc..UM~T <00001.03> ANALYSIS, Higgins Co., July 1981 T00000007 <00001.04> Technical Report No. 81-1329 T00000008 <00001.05> Prepared for T00000009 <00001.06> National Aeronautics and Space Administration T00000010 <00001.07> John F. Kennedy Space Center T00000011 <00001.08> Kennedy Space Center, Florida T00000012 <00001.09> Contract No. NASA 10-9347 T00000013 <00001.10> by T00000014 <00001 .11 > James B. Baeker T00000015 <00001.12> J.H. Higgins Company T00000016 <00001 .13> 1650 South Pacific Coast Highway T00000017 <00001.14> Redondo Beach, California 90277 T00000018 <00001.15> July 1981 T00000019 <00001.17> (Page 1) T00000020 <00002.01> TABLE OF CONTENTS T00000021 <00002.03> Page T00000022 <00002.04> ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xUi T00000023 <00002.05> ACRONYMS AND SYMBOLS xiv T00000024 <00002.06> EXECUTIVE SUMMARY xvi T00000025 <00002.07> 1. INTRODUCTION 1-1 T00000026 <00002.08> 2. VEHICLE AND TRAJECTORY DESCRIPTIONS 2-1 T00000027 <00002.09> 2.1 Space Shuttle Vehicle description 2-1 T00000028 <00002.10> 2.2 Trajectories 2-12 T00000029 <00002.11> 3. VEHICLE FAILURE MODES AND RATES 3-1 T00000030 <00002.12> 3.1 Vehicle Response Modes 3-1 T00000031 <00002.13> 3.1 .1 Catastrophic Failures 3-2 T00000032 <00002.14> 3.1.2 RTLS and Press to MECO 3-8 T00000033 <00002.15> 3.2 Failure Rates 3-10 T00000034 <00002.16> 3.2.1 Criticality 1 Component Failures 3-11 T00000035 <00002.17> 3.2.2 SRB Case/Nozzle Failures 3-28 T00000036 <00002.18> 3.2.3 Inadvertent Destruct and RTLS 3-34 T00000037 <00002.19> 4 . VEHICLE MALFUNCTION DISPERSIONS 4-1 T00000038 .<00002.20> 4.1 Stage I Dispersions 4-1 T00000039 <00002.21> 4.1 .1 Tumble Turn 4-1 T00000040 <00002.22> 4.1.2 Corkscrew Motion 4-8 T00000041 <00002.23> 4.1.3 Separated SRB 4-18 T00000042 <00002.24> 4.2 Stage II Dispersions 4-21 T00000043 <00002.25> 4.3 Guidance and Performance 4-28 T00000044 <00002.26> 5. EXPLOSION SCENARIOS AND YIELDS 5-1 T00000045 <00002.27> (Page iil T00000046 <00003.01> TABLE OF CONTENTS (Cont'd) T00000047 <00003.02> Page T00000048 <00003.03> 6. VEHICLE MALFUNCTION BREAKUP 6-1 T00000049 <00003.04> 6.1 Stage I Failures 6-6 T00000050 <00003.05> 6.1 .1 Destruct 6-6 T00000051 <00003.06> 6.1.2 ET External Explosion 6-9 T00000052 <00003.07> 6.1.3 SRB Case/Nozzle Failures 6-10 T00000053 <00003.08> 6.1.4 ET Internal Explosioh 6-11 T00000054 <00003.09> 6.1.5 Recontact 6-13 T00000055 <00003.10> 6.2 Stage II Failures 6-14 T00000056 <00003.11> 6.2.1 Destruct 6-14 T00000057 <00003.12> 6.2.2 External Explosion 6-14 T00000058 <00003.13> 6.2.3 Reentry 6-15 T00000059

Reference Copy #116 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

<00003.14> 7. POPULATION DATA 7-1 T00000060 <00003.15> 7.1 World Population 7-2 T00000061 <00003.16> 7.2 Launch Area Population 7-3 T00000062 <00003.17> 7.3 Ship traffic 7-5 T00000063 ',<00003.18> 7.4 Press to MECO Population 7-16 T00000064 <00003.19> 8. GENERAL HAZARDS ANALYSIS DATA 8-1 T00000065 <00003.20> 8.1 Wind Data 8-1 T00000066 <00003.21> 8.2 Nominal and RTLS Impact Areas 8-2 T00000067 <00003.22> 8.3 Casualty Area Data and Models 8-4 T00000068 <00003.23> 8.4 Destruct Limit Lines 8-10 T00000069 <00003.24> 9. HAZARD ANALYSIS MODELS 9-1 T00000070 <00003.25> 9.1 Launch Risk Analysis 9-1 T00000071 <00003.26> 9.2 Tumble corridor 9-5 T00000072 <00003.27> 9.3 Mixed Bivariate 9-6 T00000073 <00003.28> 9.4 Mode 5 9-9 T00000074 <00003.29> (Page T00000075 <00004.01> TABLE OF CONTENTS (Cont'd) T00000076 <00004.02> Page T00000077 <00004.03> 10. HAZARD RESULTS 10-1 T00000078 <00004.04> 10.1 On or Near Pad Explosions 10-1 T00000079 <00004.05> 10.2 Stage I In-flight Breakup/Explosion 10-5 T00000080 <00004.06> 10.3 Separated Dispersing SRB 10-9 T00000081 <00004.07> 10.4 SRB Staging 10-16 T00000082 <00004.08> 10.5 Nominal SRB Impact and RTLS 10-20 T00000083 <00004.09> 10.6 Downrange (Stage II) 10-22 T00000084 <00004.10> 10.7 Mode 5 10-25 T0000008S <00004.11> 10.8 Total 10-27 T00000086 <00004.12> 10.9 Parametric 10-30 T00000087 <00004.13> 10-10 Crew Risk 10-31 T00000088 <00004.14> 11. PRESS TO MECO 11-1 T00000089 <00004.15> 12. COMPARATIVE RISKS 12-1 T00000090 <00004.16> REFERENCES R-1 T00000091 <00004.17> (Page iv) TOODDD092 <00005.01> LIST OF FIGURES TDDODDD93 <00005.02> Number Page TOODDOD94 <00005.03> 2-1 Space Shuttle Vehicle 2-3 T00000095 <00005.04> 2-2 Space Shuttle Mission Profile 2-4 TOOOD0096 <00005.05> 2-3 Space Shuttle Vehicle with Reference T00000097 '<00005.06> Dimensions 2-5 T00000098 '<00005.07> 2-4 Orbiter Structure 2-7 T00000099 <00005.08> 2-5 External Tank Structure 2-8 TOOOOD100 <00005.09> 2-6 Solid Rocket Booster Structure 2-9 T00000101 <00005.10> 2-7 Projected Impact Point Traces 2-15 T00000102 <00005.11> 2-8 Lift-off to MECO Present Position Ground T00000103 <00005.12> Traces 2-16 T00000104 <00005.13> 3-1 Inadvertent SRB Separation 3-5 T0000010S <00005.14> 3-2 Sample Criticality 1 Failure Mode ­ T00000106 <00005.15> Orbiter Cll 3-14 T00000107 <00005.16> 3-3 General Approach for the Failure Rate T00000108 <00005.17> Computations 3-16 T00000109 <00005.18> 3-4 Categorizing Category 1 Component Failure TOOOOOll0 <00005.19> Modes into Vehicle Response Modes 3-16 TOOOOOlll <00005.20> 3-5 Log Normal Distribution 3-24 TOOOOOl12 <00005.21> 3-6 Sample Failure Rate Computation: 17" lOX T000001l3 <00005.22> Line Manifold-rupture 3-26 TOOOOOl14 <00005.23> 3-7 Computation of Total Failure Rates for a T0000011S <00005.24> Given Vehicle Response Mode 3-27 TOOOOOll6 <00005.25> 3-8 Solid Rocket Motor Case/Nozzle Failure TOOOOOll7 <00005.26> Variation with Flight Time (60 Second TOOOOOll8

Reference Copy #117 Reproduced at National Archives and Records Administration

<00005.27> Motors) 3-33 T00000119 <00005.23> 4-1 Typical Velocity Turn Angle Plot 4-4 T00000120 <00005.29> 4-2 Space Shuttle Velocity Turn Data for 24 T00000121 <00005.30> Seconds source 23 4-4 T00000122 ;<00005.31> 4-3 Tumble Turn Asymptomatic Velocity Turn T00000123 <00005.32> Angles 4-7 T00000124 <00005.33> 4-4 Tumble Turn Rate 4-7 T00000125 <00005.34> (Page v) T00000126 <00006.01> Number Page T00000127 <00006.02> 4-5 Rock and Tilt Nozzle Offset Definitions 4-10 T00000123 <00006.03> 4-6 Angle of Attack (a) History (ANGATK, T00000129 <00006.04> Degrees) 4-12 T00000130 <00006.05> 4-7 Slide Slip Angle (B) History (SIDE SL, T00000131 <00006.06> Degrees) T00000132 <00006.07> 4-12 T00000133 <00006.08> 4-8 QA History (QA, Degrees-psf) 4-13 T00000134 <00006.09> 4-9 QB Gimbal Offset (QB, Degrees-psf) 4-13 T00000135 <00006.10> 4-10 Rock Gimbal Offset (GIMPN4, Degrees) for T00000136 <00006.11> the Left SRB 4-14 T00000137 <00006.12> 4-11 Rock Gimbal Offset (GIMPN5, Degrees) for T00000138 <00006.13> the Right SRB 4-14 T00000139 <00006.14> 4-12 Tilt Gimbal Offset (GIMYN4, Degrees) for T00000140 <00006.15> the Left SRB 4-14 T00000141 <00006.16> 4-13 Tilt Gimbal Offset (GIMYN5, Degrees) for T00000142 <00006.17> the Right SRB 4-14 T00000143 <00006.18> 4-14 Rock Actuator Hard-over Positive at 30 T00000144 <00006.19> Seconds (Breakup Expected) 4-15 T00000145 <00006.20> 4-15 Tilt Actuator Hard-over Positive at 30 T00000146 <00006.21> Seconds (No Breakup Expected) 4-15 T00000147 <00006.22> 4-16 Separated Thrusting SRB Three-Sigma T00000148 <00006.23> Footprints 4-20 T00000149 <00006.24> 4-17 External Tank Reentry Breakup scenario for T00000150 <00006.25> Initial Conditions Near or at MECO 4-24 T00000151 <00006.26> 4-18 Functional Description of ET Impact T00000152 <00006.27> Footprint Determination 4-25 T00000153 <00006.28> 4-19 Three-Sigma Vacuum lIP Dispersions Due T00000154 <00006.29> to Guidance and Performance Uncertainties 4-30 T00000155 <00006.30> 6A Distribution of Velocities Imparted to T00000156 <00006.31> Hardware Fragments (from Giant Patriot T00000157 <00006.32> Data 40 for Stage I and Stage II T00000158 <00006.33> Fragments) 6-23 T00000159 <00006.34> (Page vi) T00000160 <00007.01> LIST OF FIGURES T00000161 <00007.02> (continued) T00000162 <00007.03> Number Page T00000163 <00007.04> 6-B Fragment Weight Frequency Distributions T00000164 <00007.05> for an ET Internal Exposition 6-23 T00000165 <00007.06> 7-1 Population Data Coverage 7-3 T00000166 <00007.07> 7-2 Selected Launch Area Population Centers 7-6 T00000167 <00007.08> 8-1 Right SRB Impact Footprint 3-3 T00000168 <00007.09> 8-2 SRB and ET (RTLS) Impact Areas 8-5 T00000169 <00007.10> 8-3 Destruct Limit Lines for Various Flight T00000170 <00007.11> Times 3-11 T00000171 <00007.12> 9-1 Fragment Impact Point Uncertainty Sources 9-2 T00000172 <00007.13> 9-2 Tumble Corridor Hazards Model (See Figure T00000173 <00007.14> 9-3 for Pertinent Geometry) 9-7 T00000174 <00007.15> 9-3 Tumble Corridor Model Geometry 9-8 T00000175 <00007.16> 10-1 Effect on an On/Near Pad Explosion 10-4 T00000176 <00007.17> 10-2 Impact Footprint for the 'Loss of Control T00000177

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PAGE 0001 DOCNO SSC00100010013 ~ DOCDATEX860214 S PCONTROLPCOOOOOl ""':) DOCPACK· MARGIN N r DOCTYPE PHT ~ DOCTYPEXPHOTOGRAPH I RECDATEC860299 CMSOURCEPC "'0" , FILENAMEPHOTOS 1ST PC VISIT TO NASA KSC SALVAGEOPS & DEBRIS PHOTOS C DOCTITLE FIRST PC VISIT TO NASA KSC (Z) SUBTERM SS1000SR3000SR3100SR3170SD8100LG0001SH1000 :> SUBTERMXORBITER (OV) ~ ** SOLID ROCKETBOOSTERS/MOTORS (SRBS/SRMS) ** SRB/SRM - CASE/CASE SEGMENTS ** SRB/SRM - PROPELLANT o ** STS PACKING, SHIPPING, AND HANDLING "11 ** LAUNCHAND GROUNDFACILITIES ** HRECKAGEANALYSIS/TEST ANALYSIS OF 51L MENTION NASA KSC ~8 SMITH,R NASA KSC *! RIDE,S PC 2. ROGe:RS,HP PC * PC .0 3 CRIPPEN,R NASA c. Q QA000001 ­ L1ADDTEX860325 ?CJ UBDDATEX860728 f1l gtgNO SSC00100140017 D CDATEX860199E P~ONTROLPC000013 --2 D,DCPACK tJ M~RGIN N DDCCOND DUP DOCCONDXDUPLICATE ;J DDCTYPE PHT o.;CTYPEX PHOTOGRAPH Rf;CDATEC860299 C~SOURCEPC . F~LENAMEPHOTOS 1ST PC VISIT TO NASA KSC SALVAGEOPS & DEBRIS PHOTOS ~CTITLECLOSEOUT PHOTOGRAPH OF ~IGHTSRBSKIRT FOR 51L & FUEL SUPPLY MO .... DULE (ll CjMMENT DUP AT 0060 SUBTERM MM1000SR3000DG4000 SUBTERMXSTS-33 / 51l / FLIGHT 25 . ** SOLID ROCKETBOOSTERS/MOTORS (SRBS/SRMS) -** GROUNDOP DATA FROMPHOTOGRAPHS FOR 51l MENTION NASA KSC QA 0­ QA000002 ...... LOADDTEX860325 ...... UPDDATEX ::j:j: .fND ....--....- ..- ;:.... DOCNO SSC00100180039 o0.. DOCDATEX860299E U ~PCONTROLPC000017 Q) DOCPACK MARGIN N @ [)OCCONDlXll ~ ~ PAGE 0002 DOCCONDXILLEGIBLE DOCTYPE PHT DOCTYPEXPHOTOGRAPH RECDATEC860299 CMSOURCEPC FILENAMEPHOTOS 1ST PC VISIT TO NASA KSC SALVAGEOPS & DEBRIS PHOTOS DOCTITLE PHOTOOF UNDERWATERDEBRIS FROMMISSION 51L & PC VISIT TO NASA KSC (Z) SUBTERM MM1000SS0001SS1000ET2000SR3000SR3300SR3800LG0001SW0001 SUBTERMXSTS-33 / 51L / FLIGHT 25 ** SPACE SHUTTLE ELEMENTS ** ORBITER (OV) ** EXTERNALTANK (ET) ** SOLID ROCKETBOOSTERS/MOTORS (SRBS/SRMS) ** SRB/SRM - RECOVERY(RETRIEVAL OF SRB FROMAIR) ** SRB/SRM - RANGESAFETY PACKAGE ** LAUNCHAND GROUNDFACILITIES ** SALVAGE/WRECKAGEOF 51L AUTHOR NASA MENTION NASA KSC ** PC I':: ** ROGERS,WP PC o ** ARMSTRONG,NA PC o~ ** CRIPPEN,R os ** SMITH,R NASA KSC NASA °e ** "Cl USCG .. _ .END g. DOCNO SSC00100420053 U DOCDATEX (1) 869999E u PCONTROLPC000041 s:: ~ ~ 1'1 ~ li;::'i\#~?iJ':~~-'F':~~~~~~'q";:'~\t':J~~·l~~~~-!!~~~;f~~~;~~~~f:·.:~~.~gt~_~~Jf,,;,~~~~~~~~~~Aj~~1'r??I:~~~·~-=5.-~'~~~'~!r~:~;~::-~~:~~~:-;?"-wG;,~-:::~~:z::r~_