Re: Space Shuttle story on 60 Minutes Wed. tonight

Maybe I shouldn't start this . . . but as for "that
Failure-Is-Not-An-Option machismo", it is an invention of Hollywood.
Gene Krantz never said it (or at least, that's what he says). It
sounds cool perhaps but apparently it just never happened. See the
recent postings about the IEEE Spectrum article entitled "Houston, We
Have a Solution". The article is linked and the subsequent postings
are very good. What the people on the ground were thinking and saying
makes for good reading. As a number of posters noted, the article also
disputes the film's image of the Grumman tech-rep as a useless suit.

But if it were so, rather than machismo, I suspect the comment is an
artistic reflection of an ethic that controllers felt and still feel
regarding their responsibilty towards the crew and the spacecraft. You
cannot precisely explain an ethic like that in a 2 hour movie, so you
try to capture a sense of it. Seeing how that little sound bite has
endured in our culture, I think the screenwriters succeeded. For those
who are interested enough in such things to follow news groups like
this, perhaps what Admiral Rickover said about responsibility more
accurately reflects that ethic:

"Responsibility is a unique concept. It can only reside in a single
individual. You may share it with others, but your portion is not
diminished. You may delegate it, but it is still with you. If
responsibility is rightfully yours, no evasion or ignorance or passing
the blame can shift the burden to someone else. Unless you can point
your finger at the one who is responsible when something goes wrong,
then you never had anyone really responsible."


Admiral Hyman Rickover

It doesn't make for a nearly as good of a sound-bite, but this is
closer summary of what I trying to say and perhaps it is another way of
looking at what the people involved in living the reality felt.

I have never admired 60 Minutes for anything else than entertainment,
but I am looking forward to seeing a tape of this particular segment.

Blue skies

John

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