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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!ihwpt!knudsen
From: knudsen@ihwpt.UUCP (mike knudsen)
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re: SRB ring seals/NASA culpability?
Message-ID: <704@ihwpt.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 17-Feb-86 17:23:34 EST
Article-I.D.: ihwpt.704
Posted: Mon Feb 17 17:23:34 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 18-Feb-86 04:09:37 EST
References: <195@analog.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 40

> The latest news, of yesterday and this morning (2/11/86) is that attention
> is centering on the rubber ring seals which hold the SRB segments together,
> and that NASA was aware of problems with these up to 9 months ago.
> 
> 
> Is it really possible that NASA, in spite of the pretty obvious record of
> paranoia when it comes to safety, could just plain ignore warnings about these
> seals?  Is there some other explanation--like, they did know, but thought
> they had worked out a solution (which unfortunately, wasn't good enough), or
> they didn't really realize how bad the problem was, or something?  Anything
> whatever in extenuation?
> 
> hplabs!analog!kim


My theory has been that there were probably several other reports
of trouble spots and impending disasters, and NASA couldn't attend
to all of them at once.  (OK, so maybe they should have fixed
all of them and suspended launches in the meantime, and taken all
sorts of heat about "safety paranoia" -- yes, I've often felt
they were too cautious myself).

More important, there were lots of potentially dangerous
shuttle bugs that really happened: liquid engines conking
out early, APUs catching fire, fuel cell breakdowns, tire
blowout on landing, and last but hardly least to the astronauts,
clogged toilets!

NASA was probably too busy attending to all those to beef up the
SRB seals.  Ironically, none of these involved the SRBs,
so SRB improvements could have been carried out in parallel
with the other fixes.  But NASA staff was probably spread
too thin (read: manpower shortage == low budget) to give
the SRB problem the attention it deserved.
Even tho a waiver had been signed that absolved the need
for secondary backup seals on the boosters.

	mike k	104% for manned space exploration
	"A penny saved is a dead astronaut, someday"