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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!hplabs!sdcrdcf!psivax!friesen
From: friesen@psivax.UUCP (Stanley Friesen)
Newsgroups: net.columbia,net.space
Subject: Re: Morton-Thiokol Engineering Claims
Message-ID: <1062@psivax.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 14-Mar-86 15:28:31 EST
Article-I.D.: psivax.1062
Posted: Fri Mar 14 15:28:31 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 16-Mar-86 08:38:23 EST
References: <1301@decwrl.DEC.COM> <758@ism780c.UUCP> <6442@utzoo.UUCP> <1439@brl-smoke.ARPA> <6474@utzoo.UUCP> <504@looking.UUCP>
Reply-To: friesen@psivax.UUCP (Stanley Friesen)
Organization: Pacesetter Systems Inc., Sylmar, CA
Lines: 26
Xref: watmath net.columbia:2658 net.space:6467

In article <504@looking.UUCP> brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) writes:
> 
>Was the O-ring problem something that stuck out like a sore thumb
>beforehand, as a source of major disagreement?  I suspect instead that
>it was just one of hundreds of possible problems brought up and deemed
>not serious enough.  In this case, they were wrong, and everybody pays.
>
	I think this is a very important point. In *hind-sight* it
seems obvious that the problem was significant. BUT, how do you tell
*ahead* of time which of the hundreds of niggling little doubts and
concerns are *really* important and which are not?  It is impossible
to make sure *everything* is *exactly* right before launching, if we
did that we would *never* launch. In fact if we used that criterion we
would never do anything significant.
	Unfortunately the media must have a scandal to sell newpapers
and catch viewers, so *someone* must be at fault. I have *never* seen
a news story which concluded that everything was normal and that there
was no cause for concern. They *thrive* on problems. Unfortunately, in
this case they may get innocent people ruined in the search for
scapegoats.
-- 

				Sarima (Stanley Friesen)

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