[Kid Shelleen]

Full Title:
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

[frankenMonkey]

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.

[JohnG45]

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?

[impactplayer]

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.

[rebooted]

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.

[Roccus]

Challenger is what happens when management makes technical decissions

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

[Red Badger]

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

[Buckeye McFrog]

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.

[chaosagent]

Ironically, the actual destruction of Challenger was just sheer bad luck.

The burn-thru at the SRB joint was completely random and only by bad luck occurred in the roughly 90 degree arc facing the External Tank (ET).

If it had been somewhere along the other 270 degrees, the slight loss of thrust would have been offset by a small gimbaling of the Main Engines (ME) and the Shuttle could have made orbit with little or no change. In fact at the time of the explosion, the ME’s were already moving to offset the loss of thrust.

Instead the flame from the joint cut into the ET and severed one of the lower struts mounting the SRB, resulting in explosion that destroyed the Shuttle.

[hecticskeptic]

May Bob Ebeling rest in peace and may God bless all the engineers who risk much in the face of all kinds of pressures to just say “yeah, that’s good enough”. There were other engineers involved with Challenger as well who warned of the potential disaster... Wade Robison, Roger Boisjoly, David Hoeker, Stefan Young. Boisjoly ended up testifying before Congress and is probably the most recognizable name out of the group. He died in 2012.

[cherry]

I see how the news article had to throw Reagan under the bus, just for good measure....

[fieldmarshaldj]

RIP.