From: matthews@ial7.jsc.nasa.gov (Michael C. Matthews)
Subject: Re: STS-1 Disaster -- follow-up
Followup-To: sci.space.shuttle
Organization: nasa-jsc
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 18:53:12 GMT

I hesitate to engage myself in this discussion, for fear of bringing
undue attention to the ravings of "Dr. Peter Beter" <smirk>, but...

In article <1gpgvqINNhk9@news.cerf.net>, eidetics@nic.cerf.net (Eidetics
Int'l) wrote:
> 
> Posted by Jon Volkoff, mail address eidetics@cerf.net
>
>...
> 3) Dr. Beter never worked as a consultant to the National Enquirer, but was in
>    fact an internationally-known legal and financial consultant.  Not exactly
>    the normal raw material from which cranks and prophets of doom are made of.
> 
Actually, I believe most cranks and prophets of doom in the last few
decades
have come from the financial analysis and consulting industry.  Who was
that
guy a couple of years ago who predicted a huge earthquake somewhere due to 
his application of his stock market prediction algorithms to seismograph 
readings?  Indeed, some would say that most financial analysts are prophets
of doom by the very nature of their work... 

> 5) A number of interesting comments were made concerning the Enterprise.  The
>    impression seems to be firmly fixed in people's minds that it was nothing
>    more than a glider trainer for use in landing practice.  This is not
>    surprising considering that there has been an effort since the late '70s
>    by NASA to cover up the full capabilities of this ship for reasons detailed
>    in #64.  
Isn't that rather a circular argument?  You're using the claims made 
in "#64" as a reference to counter those who dispute the validity of 
those very claims.  Not very convincing.

> I am curious, what is the source of BrianT@cup.portal.com's and
>    shafer@rigel.dfrf.nasa.gov's claim that the Enterprise has no engines, tiles,
>    and would not be capable of sub-orbital flights?  Have they seen these things
>    for themselves, or was this second-hand information? 

Indeed, how do they know that the earth is round?  Have they actually been
in space and watched the planet (if it really is a planet) rotate beneath
them, or do they just have second-hand information?  After all, the
Bolsheviks
in NASA probably just retouched the photos to make it look like a big round
earth.

You should be aware that there are many thousands of people who work on
the Shuttle program, and a relatively small percentage of them have any
security clearance.  Those clearances are only needed for work related to
specific DOD missions or payloads.  STS-1 was not a DOD mission, and there
were hundreds (if not thousands) of workers with NO CLEARANCE doing real-
time mission support in the mission control center, at KSC, at Edwards,
and at the tracking stations around the world.  These people would all have
known if something as wierd as what's been described here happened, and
they would not have kept it quiet!  Of course, you'll probably counter 
that the Bolsheviks had them all brainwashed or killed and replaced with 
replicants or some such drivel, so I don't know why I'm bothering to
explain 
this to you.

My point is that NASA is not some gigantic secret society.  It's very
open and public, and the people who work in it (well *most* of them
anyway) are not brainless robots who can be programmed to go along
with some massive conspiracy.

> It would, to my mind,
>    seem strange to send Young and Crippen in STS-1 up in space without previous
>    preparation in sub-orbital practice missions or similar.  Are you guys sure

Almost as strange as Yuri Gagarin being launched into space without benefit
of a sub-orbital practice mission!

>    we're getting the full story?  It would also seem strange to me that Dr.
>    Beter, considering his background, could go into such an elaborate, non-
>    contradictory discussion, expanding on capabilities of the Enterprise that
>    did not exist, unless there was something to it.

Another circular argument.  "He couldn't say it if it wasn't true!"

> 6) BrianT@cup.portal.com says he saw STS-1 flying due east instead of northeast.
>    I checked on my atlas concerning how the line connecting Cape Canaveral and
>    Bermuda deviates from due east, which is where #64 says the shuttle flew.
>    Actually it is closer to due east than northeast, and I would call it
>    "north-east-east."  So do you suppose this direction could be mistaken for
>    due east?  In any event, don't most launches of this nature get launched
>    toward the southeast, toward the equator?  Did STS-1 really do this?
> 
Launches of which nature?  The
cosmosphere-evading-military-spy-satellite-launching
nature? 

STS-1 (like most launches from Cape Canaveral) was launched due east,
because
that way it gets maximum benefit from Earth's rotation (assuming it really
does rotate, of course).  This results in an orbital inclination of 28.5 
degrees (which is Canaveral's latitude).  Higher-inclination orbits are 
reached by launching more northerly (northeast from the Cape).

> Introduction to the Dr. Beter AUDIO LETTER(R)
> Excerpted from the Dr. Beter AUDIO LETTER(R) REFERENCE DIGEST
> Copyright (C) Audio Books Inc., 1983
> 
>    The AUDIO LETTER cassette tape reports were recorded over a period from June,
> 1975, to November, 1982, by Dr. Peter Beter.   Each AUDIO LETTER tape report is
> approximately one hour in length.   The basic schedule of release was once a
> month, but the exact date of release each month was flexible to accommodate
> events.   There were also two periods during which the AUDIO LETTER reports were
> suspended temporarily.   The first, which extended from May to August 1977,
> separated AUDIO LETTER issues #24 and #25, and took place due to an action
> campaign by Dr. Beter with his listeners.   The second suspension extended from
> February to June 1980, and separated issues #54 and #55.   It was brought about
> by a major heart attack which Dr. Beter suffered while in the midst of recording
> AUDIO LETTER #54.

I'm very sorry to hear that.  Just how long was his brain deprived of 
oxygen, then?
-