Re: What was the biggest problem for each of the 2 destroyed US space shuttles?

From: rk (stellare_at_nospamplease.comcast.net)
Date: 09/13/04 

Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2004 21:40:54 -0500

Jay Windley wrote:

>
> "rk" <stellare@nospamplease.comcast.net> wrote in message
> news:Xns9561EAF84CBA0rk@216.196.97.136...
>| Jay Windley wrote:
>|
>| I did read your statements in their entirety. I just chose not to
>| respond to the whole long post.
>
> Fair enough. I tend to be long-winded, and for that I apologize. But
> you mentioned some issues that I had covered already, and suggested that
> I had not thought of them. I understand where you might disagree with
> what I have to say, but that's different than suggesting that I had not
> said anything.

Since the quotes are snipped (ironic since you write such long posts) this
comment is out of context. I don't recall saying or suggestiong that you had
not said anything. I did a bit of skimming up the thread to look for anything
like that but didn't find it.

Here's exactly what I said:

<quote>

> Well, these engineers were the same people who, since 1978, had said time
> after time after time, "The joints are safe to fly; don't worry about it;
> we've got it covered."

No, that's not what they said at all.

And the fact of the matter is that they were ignored when they tried to stop
the launch and in some cases continued to try and stop the launch after the
decision was made to launch. All your words below (and I don't have time
right now to go through all of that as there are a lot of errors) ignores the
fact that the onus is to prove safety, not to prove there is a problem, you
and the decision makers that evening and morning are making the same error.
And it is a fact that NASA was getting ready to scrub the launch and would
have if Thiokol did not change their corporate (not engineering) position.

The key engineers and managers were ignored. Period.

-- rk

</quote>

 
>| The engineers and even some of the key managers were ignored for
>| Challenger. Period.
>
> So you have said. As I said, I'm interested in exploring the problem in
> greater depth.

Then go ahead and do that. 

-- 
rk, Just an OldEngineer
"Engineers abhor extrapolation"
-- Ken Iliff, from _Runway to Orbit_, 2004

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