\ Bullshit. Even the "as built" shuttle disaster was caused by politics. As in, launching anyway in spite of record cold at the launch site. You "do" recall that the reason the "o" ring failed was thermal embrittlement due to those same low temperatures. You might also call to mind the fact that the non-political engineers were telling anyone who would listen DO NOT LAUNCH.
So stop trying to defend the indefensible and saying it was all "just bad luck". It wasn't.
So you’re saying that if the burnthru had happened opposite the ET, the Challenger would have still have blown up?
Is that what you’re going with?
OK, go from the other direction. What did the cold really have to do with it, besides Feynman dunking a gasket in ice water?
Do you accept NASA’s admission that burnthru’s had happened before, even during summertime launches? Look it up.
Do you also accept the fact that these burnthrus had self-sealed in the past, just as it did this time.
Or did these burnthru’s cause Shuttle disasters that NASA didn’t tell us about?
Again, if the high winds had not happened right at throttle up, the burnthru probably would not have reopened.
Again, if the burnthru had opened opposite the ET, the Shuttle would not have exploded.
You can talk politics and political decisions all the way back to the Redstone if you want.
But the fact that this Shuttle exploded during this launch on this day, was BAD LUCK. Period