Xref: utzoo sci.space:8192 sci.space.shuttle:1924
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!unisoft!hoptoad!dasys1!tneff
From: tneff@dasys1.UUCP (Tom Neff)
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: space news from Sept 12 AW&ST
Message-ID: <7594@dasys1.UUCP>
Date: 12 Nov 88 00:34:21 GMT
References: <1988Nov4.065730.10761@utzoo.uucp>
Reply-To: tneff@dasys1.UUCP (Tom Neff)
Organization: Independent Users Guild
Lines: 22

In article <1988Nov4.065730.10761@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes:
>                                        ... On the other hand, I would
>*really* like to see Morton Thiokol out of the SRB business -- they
>deserve to get their tails kicked from here to the Moon, not to go on
>getting lucrative contracts into the next century.  I'd have preferred
>to see NASA put top priority on qualifying a second source, and a THIRD
>source, for SRBs, and then ban M-T from all NASA programs forever...

Very easy to bash Thiokol after the fact, but remember it was Thiokol
engineers protesting the decision to launch Challenger and NASA's
mid-level managers browbeating the vendor into going along.  Would you
rather have Roger Boisjoly on your team, or Larry Mulloy?  Perhaps
Henry has forgotten these immortal words:

   "My God, Thiokol, when do you want me to launch, next April?"

The blame for Challenger is precisely NASA's.  If they are permitted to
remain in the shuttle business, so should Thiokol be.
-- 
Tom Neff			UUCP: ...!cmcl2!phri!dasys1!tneff
	"None of your toys	CIS: 76556,2536	       MCI: TNEFF
	 will function..."	GEnie: TOMNEFF	       BIX: t.neff (no kidding)