The "old" solvent was Trichloroethane. It was replaced by "PF Degreaser" manufactured by P-T Technologies, 108 4th Ave. South, Safety Harbor, FL 34695.
The Specification for this wonderful elixir is MSFC-QPL-2490 "CLEANER, ORGANIC WITH D-LIMONENE", which was issued in July 1995.
This specification establishes the requirements for an environmentally compliant hand wipe cleaner...The cleaner shall be a clear liquid, free of foreign material and have a faint citrus odor as determined by visual inspection with the unaided eye (corrective lenses permitted).
I guess everybody thought I was joking about the lemon-scented cleaner.
The "old" J-Flap adhesive was Morstik 132, which contained TCA. The "new" stuff is Morstik 227, which is water-based. (I don't have the specs. on that stuff.)
Another cleaner called out in B5303 (the booster stacking procedure) is "Reveille Cleaner Formula #02191". The specification for that is MSFC-SPEC-2489 "CLEANER, ORGANIC", issued in July 1995. It is manufactured by Diversey Dubois International, Inc., 255 E. 5th St., Cincinnati, OH 45202. This stuff is a petroleum distillate of some kind.
It should be noted that each of these specs listed only one product which met the specifications. In fact, they were both written so that only a single product could possibly meet the specifications.
Anybody want to bet that these two companies had political connections to the clinton administration?
Once again, you are reading something here on FR which you won't find anywhere else in the media. FReepers Rule!
Bump!!!
Not in the least; and thank you for your tenacity.
It should be noted that each of these specs listed only one product which met the specifications. In fact, they were both written so that only a single product could possibly meet the specifications.
Well blow me down. < /sarcasm>
The Slave Party, at its most deadly usual. When are we going to start throwing these fetid turds into cold jail cells?
Annie, note the above post by snopercod. Hopefully, you may will start to understand why so many of the engineers on this forum are suspicious of NASA. It isn't that we necessarily think that this bit with the cleaner for adhering the tiles, or the foaming agent was THE cause of the accident; it's that this kind of crap is systemic in government contracting. Aerospace equipment is so over-engineered that usually, by the time something finally fails, one can point to a destructive combination of at least half a dozen screwups. It's the nature of such things.
The thing that gets us mad is that so many of these decisions are decided by political associations, instead of sound engineering judgment. That is the nature of government contracting. For NASA to be "fixed," much of it will have to be privatized, else there won't likely be honest accountability.
There is precedent for such cynicism, annie. The Challenger incident would not have been solved had NASA not been forced to accept Richard Feynman, a physicist from CalTech without affiliation to NASA, to lead the investigation. He's the guy with the tenacity and the drive for truth that it took to unearth the booster o-rings as the critical point of failure. NASA was launching at temperatures that were too cold, and, as most of us knew, the engineers at Morton Thiokol had been over-ruled. Then came the cover-up.