[TheForge] YAK relativity- WAY OT, or not...

[Andy Vida]

Bruce Freeman wrote:
> 
> The NASA culture being what it is today, I wouldn't doubt it.

	It's very "government stupid".  Been that way for eons.
> 
> The Challenger disaster occurred despite considerable warnings from
> Morton-Thiokol engineers that the solid-fuel boosters could fail
> catastrophically at low temperatures. They HAD the data, 

	I remember that the finger was IMMEDIATELY pointed at
	Thiokol when the shuttle blew.  I don't know about the
	past twenty years, but when I was a kid, Thiokol had
	a very strong reputation as being a top notch engineering
	outfit.  Companies such as that exist by reputation alone
	and cannot afford to allow anything to compromise it and
	as far as I can see, they understand this very well and
	hold the attitude that reputation is more precious than gold,
	that it is far less expensive to maintain one than to repair
	a damaged one.

> Looks like a similar thing may have happened in the Columbia disaster.

	What speak is there of this?  It got very quiet very quickly.
	That NASA would be covering up more bad attitude and bumbling
	would not surprise me in the least.  In fact the opposite
	would probably knock me out of my socks.