ite nearly a decade of warnings, and which may result in the redesign of NASA itself". (Jonathan Eberhart, Science News pg.31)
             The mechanical breakdown that lead to the explosion was the "O-ring seals between the rearmost segment of the shuttle's right-hand solid-rocket booster (SRB). The failure was due to a fault design unacceptably sensitive to a number of factors (Office Report of the Presidential Commission on the Explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger). The main factor that lead to the breakdown of the seal was temperature which was 28.5F at the time of the explosion. The O-ring "did not rebound enough to keep in the hot fumes f
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