On May 17, 8:15*am, Kurt Ullman wrote:
In article ,

*aemeijers wrote:
following the same procedures and precautions. The professor's
description reminded me a lot of the Shuttle fubars- little things, that
would have been survivable by themselves, creating a situation where
catastrophic failure occurred.

* Also reminded me of the shuttle where the grunts told the PTB that
something might be wrong but the PTB got cocky and thougt they knew
best.

As I recall, it was far worse than that. The engineers from the
booster manufacturer had data that showed seals had come close to
failing in previous launches and the worst erosion occured during the
coldest weather, which was attributed to the seals being shrunk and
stiff. They told them to launch it was unsafe, but were overruled by
managment that was under pressure from NASA to get it launched on that
cold day. It sounded to me like a good case for criminal negligence
could have been made.



On the second shuttle accident there was discussion of problems
almost from the getgo including some suggestions to use the space
station and other cameras to see if they could find any damage. Dont
know if that would have saved them, but it certainly couldn't hurt.

Yes, especially since they had another shuttle that while not ready
for immediate launch, likely could have been made ready in time with
an all out effort. Also, despite knowing that debris had broken off
and struck the shuttle on launch many times, they never did any
testing to try to quantify how much damage it might be causing. That
testing was only done AFTER the disaster.

There are a lot of accidents that would have been difficult to predict
or prevent. The shuttle ones were not. And I suspect when the
investigation is concluded in the BP oil leak, the same will be true
there. But, I must be careful. We have some oil field experts here
who feel unless you have worked on a rig, you should not comment.



--
* I want to find a voracious, small-minded predator
and name it after the IRS.
Robert Bakker, paleontologist