Not all Asbestos is Created Equal
I received my final documents from NASA under a Freedom of Information Act request that I sent in October 2021 as part of my Masters Thesis dealing with the Space Shuttle Challenger. One of my focuses in the paper was to address whether the statement that “the Challenger tragedy on January 28, 1986 was caused by an asbestos substitute that failed,” with a focus on the 1983 change over in the asbestos-containing putty used in the field joint from Fuller-O’Brien to a Seal Paste sold by Randolph Products.
Initially, I thought that the issue was put to rest when I confirmed through primary source materials (the product specifications) that both putties used chrysotile asbestos with a minimum of .45 content. As such, I was happily going along thinking that the asbestos content of both products was substantially the same. That feeling went flying away on Thursday this week when I received from NASA a March 4, 1983 report by its vendor Thiokol designated TWR-13705 discussing their testing of both products during the substitution phase. I then talked with the chemist (he is still around and helpful) who undertook the testing to confirm what he did and his results.
In summary, the original product by Fuller-O’Brien used chrysotile asbestos fibers which were “much smaller in length and diameter than those in the Randolph material.” That is a major difference as thinner asbestos fibers are stronger than the large diameter version, all else being equal. As such, the asbestos fibers used in the field joint on the Challenger obtained from Randolph Products which failed to protect the O-rings were not as strong as the asbestos fibers used in many of the earlier flights.
Did that difference contribute to the failure of the field joint which, in turned, caused the crash? You may need to read my Thesis (which I am currently revising for this information) to know the answer.
Certainly something to think about. Let me know if you have any comments or questions either in the comments area for this blog or by emailing me at TheAsbestosBlob@gmail.com. Thanks. Marty
One Response
Sometimes, the littlest thing can really matter.
An important life lesson, as is your research and conclusions in general.
The putty changed a little bit in a way that was hardly noticed, and ignored when noticed. And the mission culture changed from ‘safety first’ to bureaucratic optics first, bit by bit in a way that was hardly noticed, except by a few engineers who were ignored until they were over ridden. One wonders if the crew knew about the culture change, off they still thought safety came first.
Comments are closed.