alb@alice.UUCP (Adam L. Buchsbaum) (07/30/85)
Minutes after Engine Number 1 shut down yesterday, a temperature sensor on the right main engine also began to show overheating. As the backup sensor came on to verify the reading, NASA instructed the crew to shut down the sensors and override the automatic shutdown of that engine; fortunately, the temperature never got high enough that that would have happened anyway. However, loss of a second engine at that point would have forced the Challenger to attempt an emergency landing on the island of Crete, and, as NASA put it, they probably would have ended up ''in the water.'' When EN1 shut down, the ship was 33 seconds past the TAL (Trans Atlantic Abort (to Spain)) point.