Comments by "H. de Jong" (@h.dejong2531) on "On Live TV: The Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster 1986 | Documentary" video.

  1. You fell for a con. Some flatearther grifters claim that the astronauts are still alive, and their "evidence" consists of them finding people who have similar names. The photos they presented show people who look very different from the actual astronauts.
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  2. You have been conned. Flat-earth grifters claim that the astronauts are still alive, and they show people who have similar names and who look somewhat similar. When you examine the photos more closely, you'll see big differences though: entirely different bone structure, for instance. These grifters assume you've never heard of witness protection: if someone has to disappear, there is a system in place for hiding these people. They get a different identity, with a new name. Witnesses go off the grid: no posting their photos on social media. What witness protection does not do is kill one twin so the other can take his place (as these grifters claim happen with Ron McNair).
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  3. No. Flat-Earthers found people who look a bit like the Challenger astronauts, and who have similar names, and then falsely claim these are the dead astronauts. We know this is a lie: - while the photos show similarities, they also show big differences in e.g. bone structure, eye color, voice etc. - one of the claims is that Ron McNair has taken the place of his twin. Are we to believe the government assassinated one citizen so another could take his place? - in reality, anyone who gets hidden by the government via the Witness Protection program gets a new name. They don't get to keep their old name. - in reality, anyone who gets hidden by the government via the Witness Protection program has to stay off the grid. No social media, no getting your name and photo in the newspaper.
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  4. 2 were used before, 3 after.
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  5. Yes, it's rather creepy that flat-Earthers will stoop so low as to find pictures of people who resemble the Challenger crew, and claim that the crew is still alive. In a population of 300 million, it's not that hard to find someone who resembles you.
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  6. The solid boosters were manufactured in Utah, and had to be transported to Florida by rail. This put limits on the maximum length of a segment (because it had to fit through curves in existing infrastructure). Arianespace managed 100+ launches of their Ariane 5 with a similar booster design without failures.
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  7. You've fallen for a con. Flat-Earth conmen are claiming the Challenger astronauts are still alive. The evidence they provide for that claim is so shoddy it'd be laughed out of any court.
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  8. Koyaanisqatsi.
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  9. That is incorrect. There are some flat-Earth con artists who claim that, but all they did was find some people who have the same last name, and who look a bit similar. Ever heard of witness protection? If someone has to disappear, he gets a new name, a new identity. They're also careful not to let photos of the witness be made.
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  10. SRB. Solid Rocket Booster.
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  11. Reality.
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  12. We don't think that, we know.
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  13.  @FuzzyPurp  The moon landings ended because they were the most expensive engineering project in history. After Apollo, NASA's budget was reduced by 90%, making manned lunar missions unaffordable for decades. There was nothing botched about the Apollo program. There is no evidence that indicates the moon landings were faked, and a whole to of evidence that proves they are real. The past decade has shown that Americans can be manipulated to believe nonsense, including "the moon landings were faked".
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  14. The use of rubber gaskets was an inevitable consequence of the choice of manufacturer: Thiokol produced the segments in Utah. The size of the segments was determined by the limitations on transport size: the segments could not be made longer. The segments were filled in Utah too, so you couldn't transport them to the Cape and weld them there. Because the SRBs were meant to be reusable, any sort of permanent joining of the segments was out. Riveting would have been difficult too, again because the segments are already full of propellant at that point. The only way to avoid segmented boosters would have been to manufacture and fill them at the Cape. Note that Arianespace has launched 100+ Ariane 5s with segmented boosters without issues.
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  15. Koyaanisqatsi.
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  16. You didn't watch the video then. The astronauts did NOT have ejection seats and did not survive.
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  17. Thanks for confirming you live in the 15th century.
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  18. it's Koyaanisqatsi.
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  19.  @WilliamStoneContentZone  Yes, he's misidentifying the footage in Koyaanisqatsi, that shows a mix of footage from 3 different rockets (all unmanned).
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  20. The decision to launch Challenger was made by managers under pressure from the government (for PR reasons), over the objections of scientists and engineers. The O-rings were not reused.
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  21. That moniker was coined by flat-Earthers. Not exactly known for being a reliable judge of anything.
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  22. The SRBs were transported by rail, not road.
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  23. That is incorrect. Flat-Earther charlatans found a set of people with similar names to the Challenger astronauts and who looked somewhat similar. Those people have nothing to do with Challenger, but the followers of these charlatans have been hounding these people ever since.
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  24. Due to where the SRBs were manufactured (Utah) they were stuck with building them in segments, transporting them and then assembling them on site. So they needed a method to seal the joints between the segments that was non-permanent (so the segments could be taken apart again so the SRB could be reused).
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  25. the Shuttle Enterprise was named after the Star Trek ship.
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  26. The Shuttle was a design compromised by pennypinching. Earlier designs had the entire stack as reusable, but that was deemed to expensive and NASA was not given enough budget to design and build it that way. Ejection seats would have limited the crew to 2-3 instead of 7. An escape system that could detach the entire cabin was looked at, but its mass penalty was too high, which made some of the missions the Shuttle was designed for impossible.
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  27. The O-rings WERE replaced for each mission. The SRBs were basically stripped to bare metal and rebuilt completely.
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  28. Nope. There are some flat-Earthers who like to make false claims about that, but the Challenger astronauts are all dead.
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  29.  @CharcoChoc  It's pretty easy to look up. None of the Challenger astronauts had a twin.
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  30.  @benjalucian1515   1. The solid boosters were manufactured in Utah, and had to be transported to Florida by rail. This put limits on the maximum length of a segment (because it had to fit through curves in existing infrastructure). If they'd been built in one piece, they would have had to be transported by road, which is a lot more complicated. 2. The boosters were filled at the factory. A single segment weighed 150 tons, which is just about within the weight limit for a special railcar. The whole booster weighed 600 tons, which would have made the transport a lot more unmanageable.
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  31. That video is a lie. Flat-Earther charlatans found a set of people with similar names to the Challenger astronauts and who looked somewhat similar. These people have nothing to do with Challenger, but the followers of these charlatans have been hounding these people ever since. It is one of the most disgusting pieces of reality denial I've come across.
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  32. Don't be an idiot and a liar. Read up on who made the decisions.
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  33. don't be an asshole.
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  34. @user-kz4ke8mg4r No, they don't.
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  35. Your sense of humor needs repairing.
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  36. That's not what "you can't prove a negative" means. That refers to e.g. the existence of something. We can't prove ghosts don't exist. It's perfectly possible to demonstrate that something doesn't work. In this case, a test firing of the SRB in cold weather would have demonstrated the problem. A simple pressure test with the O-ring in a test rig would have demonstrated the problem.
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  37. Koyaanisqatsi.
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  38. No. Flat-Earther charlatans have found some people who look a bit like the astronauts and have the same name, and are claiming those are the astronauts. This story is full of holes: 1. there are similarities, but also big differences in e.g. facial bone structure. 2. the US has a program for hiding people: Witness Protection. This has stringent rules which include not keeping your old name, not using social media, not getting your name and photo plastered all over the media. These people did not follow any of these rules, so they are not hiding. These are not the Challenger astronauts. 3. the flerfs claim that the US government murdered Ron McNair's brother so Ron could take his place. This is a ridiculous claim.
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  39.  @tnwhiskey68  From the beginning, witness protection was set up to defend against criminal organizations with the resources to trawl through all public records. From the beginning, the program was designed to give witnesses a new identity, not "hide" them by letting them keep their name.
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  40. No, none of the astronauts are alive. Flat-Earther charlatans have published lies claiming the astronauts are still alive. If you want to call NASA out for fraud, provide evidence. Since the inception of NASA, nobody has been able to do that. Not one single time. So put up or shut up.
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  41. SRB fuel isn't explosive. The SRBs just kept running until they ran out of fuel.
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  42.  @Boodieman72  The SRBs are pretty solid. They are steel casings 8 mm thick, supported on the inside by the fuel, which has a rubbery structure.
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