 theyre on your side." She tells him that the controls  are on panel C3, which is correct, but panel C3 is directly between  the pilot and commander seats, and the SRB separation controls can  be easily reached by either crew member. Also, during launch,  according to NASA and other shuttle astronauts, the PLT and CDR  dont touch anything during launch. The separation of the SRBs is  done by onboard computer. The only indication of SRB performance is  a light that tells the crew the SRBs are about to separate. No  buttons are pushed.