Shuttle Fire Alarm Goes Off

Research aboard the shuttle Challenger was interrupted briefly today when the ship’s fire alarm went off four times, but there were no indications of smoke or problems in the ship and the astronauts resumed their experiments.

The loud siren sounded while the astronauts were out of communications range with ground stations. Astronaut James Buchli told mission control in Houston that a quick check of the ship found no evidence of fire, although he said there were some erratic readings at the time on the ship’s main electric system voltmeter. The ship is equipped with automatic fire extinguishers, but they were not activated.