[Boatanchors] Space Shuttle (OT, kinda)

[David Stinson]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gary Pewitt" <garypewitt at centurytel.net>
To: <W9RAN at oneradio.net>
>....  Congress on the other hand cut NASA's budget so much
> that we ended up with the inferior design that gave us two 
> catastrophic
> failures in the Shuttle fleet...

I had a very minor ground support role for the Challenger flight.
One of the data trailers had a big mural of Challenger on the outside
and all kinds of  well-wishing messages written on it.
I will never forget the call from my boss, or the looks on the faces
of my fellow techs and engineers that day.

In fairness, I think it was incompetant management, rather than faulty 
design,
that caused those terrible events.  It wasn't the foam strike on 
Columbia that
caused the disaster; system problems are one of the things we have to
expect on "the cutting edge" and working them out is supposed to be
part of the job (rather than pretending they're not a problem).
Just as with Challenger, it was (mis)managers wanting
to polish their own apples, ignoring techs and engineers who
told them what would happen and being told to shut up.
Whenever something like this happens,
you can usually find some glad-handing back-side kisser in authority
at the root of it, and some poor lower-level tech or engineer
to take the blame.