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Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Launching shuttles soon
Message-ID: <7304@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 8-Nov-86 21:58:30 EST
Article-I.D.: utzoo.7304
Posted: Sat Nov  8 21:58:30 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 8-Nov-86 21:58:30 EST
References: <7254@utzoo.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 20

>     The only qualified people (the current members of the Astronaut Corps)
> say they will be happy to fly it - as soon as the SRBs are understood,
> fixed, and tested (at least, this is what Sally Ride said in a talk she
> gave at Caltech last night). Since these are the people who have been putting
> their lives on the line all along, I tend to trust their judgement. By the 
> time any of the well-meaning volunteers could be trained, the joint redesign 
> and testing program will hopefully be completed anyway.

When I said "qualified volunteers", I meant from the current astronauts.
Sally Ride is not the whole astronaut corps.  The astronauts have an obvious
vested interest in pushing the safety issue as hard as they can; this should
be seen as what it is, a political maneuver to encourage badly-needed changes.
If there was a top-level decision to the effect that there *will* be launches
at once but that the safety cleanup will continue, I don't think there would
be any problem getting astronauts for the flights.  Also, as I have observed
before, a good fraction of the astronauts are military officers, who are
sworn to risk their lives for their country on request anyway.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid}!utzoo!henry