Challenger: The Final Words

By DAVID ELLIS/

Nearly five years after the event, the legal wrangling continues over - audiotapes of the space shuttle Challenger's final moments. Several news organizations (including TIME) sued NASA under the Freedom of Information Act to disclose certain aspects of its investigation into the accident. Most eventually withdrew their actions, but 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 pilot Michael Smith's "uh-oh," indicating he might have been aware of impending danger. A federal appeals court agreed with NASA that releasing the voice material would constitute an invasion of privacy. George Freeman, a Times lawyer, says the paper has not decided if it will appeal. But 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."

With reporting by Linda Williams