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From: macleod@drivax.UUCP (MacLeod)
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.space.shuttle
Subject: 95% vs. 99.9% reliability
Message-ID: <3659@drivax.UUCP>
Date: 5 Aug 88 22:00:47 GMT
References: <3763@teklds.TEK.COM> <2087@silver.bacs.indiana.edu>
Reply-To: macleod@drivax.UUCP (MacLeod)
Organization: Digital Research, Monterey, CA
Lines: 26

In article <2087@silver.bacs.indiana.edu> konath@silver.UUCP (kannan) writes:
:In article <3763@teklds.TEK.COM: dant@mrloog.LA.TEK.COM (Dan Tilque) writes:

::<My idea is that they launch Discovery on or before July 20, 1989, even 
::<if its faucets do leak.  Any others?

:Anniversary or no anniversary, launch Discovery only when Crippen
:is absolutely sure that there is nothing wrong and the Challenger
:tragedy should not as far as it is humanly possible be repeated. If
:there were no human lives at stake, go ahead and launch it but since
:it is a manned mission all precautions have to be taken.

I disagree, strongly.  There should have been an investigation of the
Challenger disaster, and when they found that the O rings failed below
a certain temperature, they should have continued launching >above that
temperature<, while working on a better engineering solution. 

There are many, many qualified scientists and pilots willing to risk their
lives in spaceflight.  The engineering effort necessary to move from a 
95% safety record to a 99.9% safety record has stunted the US space
program, focussed its energy in introverted paranoia instead of a healthy
adult acceptance of risk, and mave have given the Soviets an unbeatable
lead in space travel.  To me, the latter also implies the potential for
Soviet domination of the entire Earth. 

Michael Sloan MacLeod   (amdahl!drivax!macleod)