Wisconsin native.
"The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him."--GKC
"Liberalism is the modern and morbid habit of always sacrificing the normal to the abnormal" --G K Chesterton
"The only objective of Liberty is Life" --G K Chesterton
"A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition." -- Rudyard Kipling
"The good PhD also tells us exactly why the Challenger was lost."
Challenger blew up because the solid rocket boosters were made in Utah? Then why didn't they blow up on the other 134 missions?
They didn't. The Challenger blew up because the launch was done in weather colder than safe operation required. Data from previous launches showed some degree of O ring damage or failure at low temperatures and a pattern was recognized. Engineers warned that the temperature was too low and advised against the launch.
Morton Thiokol management overrode the engineers recommendation in order to meet NASA's desire for an on-time launch.
The failure happened BECAUSE there was an O-ring. The O-ring was there BECAUSE the rocket was in two parts. The rocket was in two parts BECAUSE it was manufactured in the wrong place: Utah.
All the rest IS relevant because the solid rocket boosters didn't blow up in 134 other missions.
It can be argued that it would have been better to not have a segmented booster. I'll give you that.
"And it ain't pretty". What? That one of hundreds of thousands of policy decisions turned out to be bad?
In the early days of Apollo, pure oxygen was used in the space capsule. Bad decision and three astronauts paid for it with their lives. Lessons were learned and changes were made.
Politics and Congressional graft. Nice.
ReplyDelete"The good PhD also tells us exactly why the Challenger was lost."
ReplyDeleteChallenger blew up because the solid rocket boosters were made in Utah? Then why didn't they blow up on the other 134 missions?
They didn't. The Challenger blew up because the launch was done in weather colder than safe operation required. Data from previous launches showed some degree of O ring damage or failure at low temperatures and a pattern was recognized. Engineers warned that the temperature was too low and advised against the launch.
Morton Thiokol management overrode the engineers recommendation in order to meet NASA's desire for an on-time launch.
You aren't familiar with root-cause analysis.
ReplyDeleteThe failure happened BECAUSE there was an O-ring. The O-ring was there BECAUSE the rocket was in two parts. The rocket was in two parts BECAUSE it was manufactured in the wrong place: Utah.
All the rest is irrelevant.
All the rest IS relevant because the solid rocket boosters didn't blow up in 134 other missions.
ReplyDeleteIt can be argued that it would have been better to not have a segmented booster. I'll give you that.
"And it ain't pretty". What? That one of hundreds of thousands of policy decisions turned out to be bad?
In the early days of Apollo, pure oxygen was used in the space capsule. Bad decision and three astronauts paid for it with their lives. Lessons were learned and changes were made.
What is the point of your post?
Interesting debate here in the com-box; points to both sides.
ReplyDeleteBTW Pournelle's sci-fi books are quite good.
Ronnie Raygun wanted to launch. Fock the astronauts, they were expendable.
ReplyDelete