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+harry i put together a team of women from the computing division here at kennedy and we have spent
+most of the last eighteen months combing through mission files and computer printouts looking for
+more clues to the source of the oxygen tank explosion onboard apollo xiii and i think we have
+finally worked out what happened the tank containing the source of the explosion was originally
+installed in apollo x but removed for modification during that process it got dropped so it was held
+back for further tests and a replacement fitted for that flight once it had passed inspection the
+tank was returned to service and earmarked for odyssey further upgrades were carried out to allow it
+to runoff ground power during fit out at twice the spaceship voltage and the higher power was used
+to boil off excess oxygen during ground tests unfortunately it looks like the thermostatic switches
+in the tank were overlooked during the voltage upgrade and our best guess is that they fused closed
+during the boil off allowing the temperature to rise to over a thousand degrees you might think the
+test engineers would have noticed that but since the tank operating temperature was supposed to be
+somewhere well below zero the dial only went as far as plus eighty sono one would have noticed
+operating that far out of normal range it is a miracle the tank lasted as long as it did and that
+adds to the impression that this was a simple accident a chain of events that could not have been
+foreseen but the computer file stella different story we found two versions of the upgrade report
+which was written to detail the procedures for modifying the electrical system on the tank the first
+gives a comprehensive list of the cabling switchgear and control systems that needed to be hardened
+for the ground based voltage it lists every critical component except the thermostatic valves this
+document was filed in the service records owe know it was the official record but the chief systems
+engineer who signed it off says the signature on it is a badcopy of his own we found identical
+copies in several mission files both in the manufacturers records and at kennedy where some of the
+tests were carried out so it is clear that this was the official version used in the upgrade the
+second version appeared to be the same document but it included the thermostatic valves on the list
+of components to be changed and the temperature gauge limits were circled several times with an
+exclamation mark next to the eighty degree ceiling it looks like our saboteur deliberately arranged
+for the tank to be misconfigured in an effort to cause trouble for the mission although we cant be
+sure they realised how dangerous this was when we put it together with all the other accidents it is
+pretty clear this was another deliberate attack on the program we found the second version of the
+report in a box under the floorboards in mikes place i suppose it is possible that mike had stumbled
+across the document himself and was investigating it as part of his campaign to prove that the
+russians were behind this string of problems but at the very least he is guilty of a major
+misjudgement and if the astronauts had died he would have been tried for manslaughter as it is
+together with the leak charges he will be going to prison for a very longtime of course the evidence
+is still largely circumstantial we can definitely tie him to the leak to the newspaper forensics
+matched the typewriter ribbon and type characteristics on his typewriter with the ink and
+impressions on the letter to the editor but we still can not show conclusively that he directed or
+carried out any of the sabotage attempts and we have not be enable to find anyone else who had both
+motive and opportunity so he is our best suspect i am not sure we can entirely relax but with no
+significant incidents on apollo xiv to xvi and with mike in custody i feel slightly less worried
+about the remaining apollo flight we are still trying to crack that other enciphered document we
+found in mikes place it has a very strange alphabet which i think must be significant but icant
+quite see how to break it yet now that the nasa computing experts have more time i am hoping that we
+should be able to decipher it and that it will shed some more light on mikes thinking more
+importantly it might tell us what elseif anything he had planned meg
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