🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1988Nov18.182613.1823@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes:
-In article <7734@dasys1.UUCP> tneff@dasys1.UUCP (Tom Neff) writes:
->-...NASA is
->-hardly blameless for the pressure it applied, but it was Thiokol, not
->-NASA, that ultimately decided to ignore the problem...
->-Being honorable under pressure is difficult, yes.  It's ever so much
->-simpler to take the easy way out and say "I vas chust following orders".
->
->Thiokol was concurrently negotiating a contract renewal.  The pressure
->to "go along" under those circumstances is unbearable...
-
-Et tu, Tom?  I really fear for mankind's future when damn near everybody
-who discusses this issue seems to feel that Thiokol was right to go along
                                                     ^^^^^^^^^
-just because it would have been difficult and painful not to.

I come to bury Thiokol, not to praise it. <grin - couldn't resist,
Spencerius> The reason we're still disagreeing is that Henry has
shifted ground.  He started by saying that Thiokol should be DUMPED
forever as a shuttle contractor because of their role in the Challenger
disaster.  Now he's just saying they weren't RIGHT to yield to NASA
pressure.  I agree, they weren't.  Going from there to Henry's
suggested remedy is another question altogether.  I claim that any of
the major NASA contractors would have done nearly the same thing under
similar circumstances, especially considering the contract renewal.  If
we want to dump the contractor system as a whole, OK; if not, NASA has
to be held responsible for managing that system effectively.  "My God,
Thiokol, when do you want me to launch, next April?"  The virtuous
answer to Mulloy's question would have been "yes, if necessary." You
would have to be a Keebler Elf to believe that any NASA contractor
could have been expected to give that answer.  The crime is that the
question was even asked.

-The greatest tragedy of the Challenger disaster is that seven people died,
-a near-irreplaceable billion-dollar orbiter was destroyed, the US manned
-space program was nearly ruined... and nobody was held responsible for
-it in any meaningful way.

On the gut level I agree with this, but in a certain sense the outcome
we got may have been better.  By blaming the "system as a whole" for
the tragedy while most of the specific people under fire quit or
were transferred elsewhere, we spread the hurt (I think) where it will
do the most good.  It might have been counterproductive to have had
someone like the doped-up Amtrak switcher to pillory publicly.  The
flawed system itself might have been permitted to plow on unaffected in
the aftermath.
-- 
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)