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From: dietz@SLB-DOLL.CSNET (Paul Dietz)
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Reactions to Shuttle Disaster
Message-ID: <8601290324.AA02523@s1-b.arpa>
Date: Tue, 28-Jan-86 20:41:02 EST
Article-I.D.: s1-b.8601290324.AA02523
Posted: Tue Jan 28 20:41:02 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 30-Jan-86 05:43:30 EST
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The ARPA Internet
Lines: 29

First impressons of reactions:

(1) Reagan's speech was masterful (the last sentence, especially).  You
have to admire his style.  Reagan has apparently ruled out immediate
cancellation of the shuttle; long term reaction is hard to judge.

(2) Criticism of NASA has been muted, perhaps because it would seem in
bad taste so soon after the incident.

(3) The anti-manned spaceflight planetary scientists will jump on this
to try to scuttle the space station and perhaps cut back on the
shuttle.  Thomas Gold was strongly critical of the shuttle and of manned
spaceflight to low orbit as practiced with the shuttle when he was
interviewed on MacNeill/Lehrer this evening.  The
juxtaposition of this tragedy with the Voyager-2 flyby of Uranus
did not go unmentioned.

(4) NASA isn't helping things by keeping quiet, although it's unfair for
the news media to expect immediate diagnosis of the cause of the
tragedy.  If NASA takes too long the media could get unruly.

(5) Pro-space groups have gone into damage-control mode.  Ben Bova was
on the local TV station downplaying the accident.

(6) The level of media interest is astounding.  Hard facts will be
scarce for a while, so there's going to be a tremendous news vacuum
sucking all sorts of speculation, accusation and justification into
public view.  A lot of what previously seemed unpatriotic criticism
will be aired.