NASA's
official transcript of the Challenger flight
recorder.
This transcript was made from the Challenger's OPS2 tape recorder system, which recorded voice communication among the Challenger crew and between the crew and ground control. The unit was recovered from the ocean floor 43 days after the Challenger accident. IBM engineers helped NASA painstakingly restore the tape's data, and this transcript is said to be the complete result, up till loss of data at T + 73 seconds.
The disputed
additional transcript of "The Challenger's Final Minutes."
This transcript surfaced on the Internet as early as 1993, and alleges to be additional material suppressed from NASA's official transcript, continuing at T + 75 seconds. It was originally published in the tabloid newspaper Weekly World News, and has also circulated on Usenet and a number of web sites. NASA states that this transcript is a fake, and its authenticity is widely disbelieved.
News
accounts regarding Challenger flight recorder
transcripts/tapes.
Information about the recovery of the flight recorder, the official NASA transcript, and various unsuccessful FOIA requests and legal suits brought by the media to obtain copies of NASA's actual recordings.
The New
York Times Company v. National Aeronautics and Space
Administration.
Excerpts from court cases in which the New York Times unsuccessfully tried to get copies of the actual recordings. NASA was able to deny the New York Times' Freedom of Information Act request by asserting that the written transcripts were full and complete, there was no additional information to be gleaned from voice inflections or cabin background noise, and thus the request would unnecessarily invade the astronauts' privacy and cause pain to their loved ones.
NASA's
rebuttal to speculation about recordings or transcripts beyond T + 73
seconds.
Shuttle power and the
OPS2 recorder.
Dennis
Powell and the origins of the "transcript."