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From: lmc@cisden.UUCP (Lyle McElhaney)
Newsgroups: net.columbia
Subject: Re: Challenger disaster
Message-ID: <501@cisden.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 9-Feb-86 13:38:30 EST
Article-I.D.: cisden.501
Posted: Sun Feb  9 13:38:30 1986
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> 	I hear a lot of people saying things like: "Sure, we lost a shuttle,
> but the most important thing, the biggest tradgedy, is that we lost 7 human
> beings." The fact of the matter, however, is that the human beings are 
> indeed the most expendable element of the space program. Those astronauts
> knew the risks and accepted them. I would be stunned to hear any astronaut
> say that the manned space program should stop because it's too dangerous. Let's
> face it - as others have already pointed out - pioneer mortality is the
> price you pay for exploration.

It seems to me that if the shuttle is to become the DC3 of space then
eventually the public will have to begin becoming to some extent callous
to the loss of personnel on the flights. If, everytime a person dies in a
shuttle, we halt the program, hold 15 different investigations, traumatize
the populace, and cause layoffs in all the related industries, then we
aren't there yet. It may sound completely callous of me (and I was as
distracted as anyone by the accident), but until we rank these deaths in
the same category as "industrial accidents" then we cannot really regard
the shuttle (or any other system) as an operational system.

Which only means, I suppose, that the shuttle is still in an experimental
stage in some sense.

This is my first incursion into the group with my opinion, as opposed to
hard facts. I'm sure to be flamed for what I've said, but it has to
happen.

Lyle McElhaney
...hao!cisden!lmc