release of challenger transcript

From: radams@winternet.com (Rick Adams)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: "Challenger" transcript
Date: 16 Jan 1996 05:28:41 GMT

The Washington Post, Jul 18, 1986:

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced yesterday that
intercom voice recordings from the Challenger crew cabin, restored by IBM
engineers, indicate the seven crew members never knew anything was wrong
before the space shuttle... broke apart....

The agency has not decided whether to release transcripts of the crew
conversations...  "We've never before released crew transcripts, because
they are viewed as note-taking for the crew... ...[the tapes are] not
perfectly clear, and some segments require additional review."

The tapes [were] recovered from the Atlantic more than six weeks after the
accident.... Challenger carried five operational recorders containing both
voice and computer data....

In response to a Washington Post request for information from the tapes
under the Freedom of Information Act, NASA responded on May 20, "There are
no transcripts of the voice tape recordings recovered from the crew
compartment.... The data was nonrecoverable."


Time magazine, Jul 28, 1986:

NASA... claimed that preliminary analysis of cabin voice recordings shows
that "the crew was unaware of the events associated with the tragedy."
Said one NASA technician: "The tape ends just like the lights going out."
But NASA would not reveal the contents of the taped conversations and
said that reporters would have to file freedom-of-information requests to
acquire transcripts.


The Washington Post, Jul 29, 1986:

In response to a Washington Post request for information from the crew
intercom tapes under the Freedom of Information Act, NASA responded on
May 20 that the data was "nonrecoverable."  NASA officials later said they
believed that to be true at the time, adding that the restoration by 
IBM engineers was a "minor miracle."


Los Angeles Times, Aug 2, 1986:

NASA officials have said that investigators... could not initially make out
the final sound on the recording.  After further examination, they determined
it was the voice of Smith.  "Uh-oh," Smith said...


Time magazine, Dec 24, 1990:

Several news organizations (including Time) sued NASA under the Freedom
of Information Act... the New York Times has continued to petition for
tapes to back up a NASA transcript of cabin conversation.  In the official
version, the final comment is Michael Smith's "uh-oh"... A federal appeals
court agreed with NASA that releasing the voice material would constitute
an invasion of privacy... A NASA investigator has confirmed suspicions
that the astronauts were conscious of their fate, and that among the last
words from the craft were those of one astronaut saying to another, "Give
me your hand."


Ft Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, Dec 10, 1994:

After the explosion in 1986 of the space shuttle Challenger... the
government fought to prevent the release of the cockpit tapes.  They said
that the survivors' privacy would be invaded if the public heard the sound
of the victims' voices in the moments before their death.

The New York Times sued for the release of the tapes after the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration released only transcripts... A federal
judge ordered the release, but the Justice Department appealed and won.

April 30, 1996