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From: mangoe@umcp-cs.UUCP (Charley Wingate)
Newsgroups: net.columbia
Subject: Re: Congressional committee reports, the end of space research...
Message-ID: <3305@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 21-Feb-86 14:16:57 EST
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.3305
Posted: Fri Feb 21 14:16:57 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 24-Feb-86 07:40:23 EST
References: <4998@alice.uUCp>
Organization: U of Maryland, Computer Science Dept., College Park, MD
Lines: 36

In article <4998@alice.uUCp> jj@alice.UUCP writes:

>Ok.  Right after the disaster, I said that it was likely the end
>of NASA and the manned space program.  Everybody (and I do NOT
>recall any dissenters) told me I was nuts.

>Today, in the paper, I see that Senator Hollings is calling the
>disaster "completely preventable".  In the same article, I see that
>NASA and the congressional committee engaged in a shouting match,
>and that Morton-Thiokol is being investigated because two engineers
>have said that they advised against the launch, while the management
>finally OK'ed it.

>Frankly, anyone who thinks NASA can live through this is pretty
>optomistic, I think, because the committee is doing their level best
>to ruin all of the people who have spent their life learning about
>the shuttle, and who know how to make it  work.

My, aren't WE pessimistic today.  Assuming for the moment that it becomes
clear that NASA went ahead and launched in spite of all advice, they
appropriate parties NEED to be yelled at.  So far I get the distinct
impression that some NASA bigwigs, after consulting with the experts in
the field who told them not to launch, went ahead and did so anyway.
Frankly, if NASA is going to be allowed to continue to operate in that
fashion, we would be better off without it.  I don't think that this
examination justifies the conclusion proposed above, however.  I haven't
heard any senators saying "Shut down the space program".

One problem seems to have been forgotten in all this.  Suppose that it is
determined that it was too cold to launch.  Doesn't this mean that winter
launches will have to be given up?  It doesn't get that cold in Florida all
the time, but I suspect it gets that cold often enough to cause delays.

I suspect, however, that the SRB joints are going to be redesigned anyway.

C. Wingate