Re: 7 myths about the Challenger shuttle disaster

henry@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Henry Spencer) wrote: 

>Today, just like thirty years ago, there is no way to achieve that level
>of robustness and reliability without a really thorough test program.  And
>today, just like thirty years ago, everyone involved is desperately trying
>to pretend otherwise, because it looks too time-consuming and expensive.

Bingo. I like Pat Bahn's remark last summer that "It took us thirty
years to realize NASA was kidding about the Shuttle"... with the
caveat that to some extent and for some portion of that time lots of
us -- from presidents to press to USENetters -- kidded ourselves, too,
because it was the only game in town. 

What annoys me about the wilder reaches of the alt.space POV is the
tendency to hand-wave away the time and expense of testing (and design
reviews and change management and...) as something that goes away whwn
you dispense with NASA/Big Aerospace "bureaucracy." They'll have to
*learn* how lean they can get without sacrificing robustness and
reliability; it's not a slam dunk based on airy references to the
Skunk Works and Augustine's laws.    

.

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