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Challenger engineer who warned of space shuttle disaster dies aged 89
Daily Mail ^ | 03/22/2016 | HANNAH PARRY

Posted on 03/22/2016 9:32:05 AM PDT by Kid Shelleen

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Challenger engineer who warned of space shuttle disaster dies aged 89 after spending the past 30-years racked with guilt over the seven crew members deaths
1 posted on 03/22/2016 9:32:05 AM PDT by Kid Shelleen
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To: Kid Shelleen

This was (and hopefully remains) an important story. ATK and its employees were made the scapegoats, the O-rings have always performed as designed. NASA management overruled its own (and ATK’s) engineers because they wanted the launch to proceed on schedule.


2 posted on 03/22/2016 9:35:30 AM PDT by frankenMonkey (Trump 2016, because FUGOP)
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To: Kid Shelleen
Challenger engineer who warned of space shuttle disaster dies aged 89 after spending the past 30-years racked with guilt over the seven crew members deaths.

He tried to warn them about the launch at those temps. He was overruled by NASA.

So why the guilt?

3 posted on 03/22/2016 9:36:46 AM PDT by JohnG45
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To: JohnG45

He felt guilty about not lobbying harder to postpone the flight.


4 posted on 03/22/2016 9:37:42 AM PDT by Kid Shelleen (Beat your plowshares into swords. Let the weak say I am strong)
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To: JohnG45

Perhaps because he thought he could have done more.


5 posted on 03/22/2016 9:38:20 AM PDT by Maine Mariner
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To: JohnG45

“So why the guilt? “

Evidently he was a “man of principle!”


6 posted on 03/22/2016 9:39:17 AM PDT by vette6387 (Obama can go to hell!)
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To: JohnG45

I think (and this is just my guess) is that the media always publicized it as a failure of the O-rings. ATK (the company that produced the solid rockets) never entirely recovered. They are now producing (I think) solid rocket boosters for the new manned space vehicles.


7 posted on 03/22/2016 9:40:20 AM PDT by frankenMonkey (Trump 2016, because FUGOP)
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To: Kid Shelleen

I was working with Morton Thiokol on another project at the time and asked about the engineer involved. They told be he KNEW the seal would fail and would not OK launch - but his VP (a non-engineer) over-road him. He then stayed up all night trying to reach someone - anyone - to stop the launch. It was his design, and he felt responsible.

By the way, NASA had already built another launch site in California, but they had provided heaters for the missile because the KNEW it could not work in cold weather.

Everyone went to sleep on this one.


8 posted on 03/22/2016 9:40:24 AM PDT by impactplayer
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To: JohnG45

“So why the guilt?”

NASA overruled his warning. It was said at the time that NASA overruled the warning because they felt pressured to go ahead with the launch so that President Ronald Reagan could have a press conference with the astronauts that night.


9 posted on 03/22/2016 9:41:21 AM PDT by spel_grammer_an_punct_polise (Why does every totalitarian, political hack think that he knows how to run my life better than I?)
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To: All
From the article:
On the 30th anniversary of the disaster, last January, he revealed that he still blamed himself for not lobbying harder to postpone the flight. 'I could have done more. I should have done more,' he told NPR
A religious man, he says he has prayed on the issue and continues to wonder why God picked 'a loser' for the job

10 posted on 03/22/2016 9:42:37 AM PDT by Kid Shelleen (Beat your plowshares into swords. Let the weak say I am strong)
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To: JohnG45

I’d guess he felt guilty because he was largely the public face of one of the greatest failures in modern American history.

People died, families torn apart, careers destroyed, Americas image tarnished.

IMO the question isn’t why did he feel guilty. Its why is he the only one to publicly admit it.


11 posted on 03/22/2016 9:49:05 AM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: Kid Shelleen
Dr Richard Feynman was widely acclaimed when he “discovered” that the O rings were the cause. But if the engineer knew the cause the day before the launch, and he told others, why the big deal made about Feynman? He simple discovered what was already known. Or was there a cover up and the engineer never said anything throughout the big investigation. Sorry, I just don't get this.
12 posted on 03/22/2016 9:49:36 AM PDT by rebooted
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To: frankenMonkey

IIRC they were forced to redesign the O Rings in order to conform to some EPA mandate.

The O Rings that would have kept the Challenger crew alive were banned because they contained some chemical that the extremists at the EPA didn’t like.


13 posted on 03/22/2016 9:52:19 AM PDT by Pelham (more than election. Revolution)
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To: rebooted

” But if the engineer knew the cause the day before the launch, and he told others, why the big deal made about Feynman?”

Because Feynman was as much publicity hound as he was scientist.


14 posted on 03/22/2016 9:54:29 AM PDT by Pelham (more than election. Revolution)
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To: Kid Shelleen

Challenger is what happens when management makes technical decissions

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2007/01/remembering-the-mistakes-of-challenger/


15 posted on 03/22/2016 9:54:48 AM PDT by Roccus (Fighting POLITICIANS is the true WOT)
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To: Kid Shelleen

Rest in peace, sir. It wasn’t your fault. You did your best..............................


16 posted on 03/22/2016 9:58:53 AM PDT by Red Badger (The Left doesn't like him and the Right doesn't like him, so he must be the right guy for the job...)
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To: Pelham

You are confusing the o-ring issue with the brake away foam which caused the second disaster. The foam had been changed due to environmental concerns to a foam that tended to break away in larger chunks. BTW, I designed a small piece of the shuttle in about 1976.


17 posted on 03/22/2016 10:05:29 AM PDT by crutcheb
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To: spel_grammer_an_punct_polise

So NASA blamed Reagan? No surprise, I guess. I am sure, if consulted with the facts, Reagan would have ordered it scrubbed.


18 posted on 03/22/2016 10:05:49 AM PDT by originalbuckeye ("In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." - George Orwell)
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To: Pelham

You’re thinking about the glue that held the heat tiles on and that has been dispelled.


19 posted on 03/22/2016 10:06:22 AM PDT by IBIAFR
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To: Kid Shelleen

Rest in Peace, sir.

Every day, in every industry, an engineer raises a concern like yours, and is promptly shouted-down by the bean counters.


20 posted on 03/22/2016 10:11:56 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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