The Conservative Cave

Current Events => The DUmpster => Topic started by: MoshMasterD on February 08, 2012, 04:04:04 PM

Title: Space Shuttle Challenger blame game
Post by: MoshMasterD on February 08, 2012, 04:04:04 PM
LINKO (http://www.democraticunderground.com/101446387#post11)

Quote
Star Member Lionel Mandrake

View profile
 
Roger Boisjoly dies at 73; engineer tried to halt Challenger launch
By Ralph Vartabedian, Los Angeles Times
February 7, 2012

    The 1986 explosion that destroyed the space shuttle Challenger and killed seven astronauts shocked the nation, but for one rocket engineer the tragedy became a personal burden and created a lifelong quest to challenge the bureaucratic ethics that had caused the tragedy.

    Roger Boisjoly was an engineer at solid rocket booster manufacturer Morton Thiokol and had begun warning as early as 1985 that the joints in the boosters could fail in cold weather, leading to a catastrophic failure of the casing. Then on the eve of the Jan. 28, 1986, launch, Boisjoly and four other space shuttle engineers argued late into the night against the launch.

    In cold temperatures, o-rings in the joints might not seal, they said, and could allow flames to reach the rocket's metal casing. Their pleas and technical theories were rejected by senior managers at the company and NASA, who told them they had failed to prove their case and that the shuttle would be launched in freezing temperatures the next morning. It was among the great engineering miscalculations in history.

    A little more than a minute after launch, flames shot out of the booster joint, melted through the nearby hydrogen fuel tank and ignited a fireball that was watched by the astronauts' families and much of the nation on television. Boisjoly could not watch the launch, so certain was he that the shuttle would blow up. In the months and years that followed, the disaster changed his career and permanently poisoned his view that NASA could be trusted to make the right decisions when matters came to life and death.


Read more:
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-roger-boisjoly-20120207,0,2248999.story

Quote
Star Member no_hypocrisy
11. Not just NASA.

View profile

Last edited Tue Feb 7, 2012, 03:09 PM USA/ET - Edit history (1)
I always had the impression the White House (Reagan) put pressure on NASA to launch no matter what on that date. They were investing a lot of their prestige on having the first public school teacher on board as the first civilian to ride on a space shuttle and who would actually link up and teach a science class on board (Christa McAuliffe). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christa_McAuliffe

The White House IMO is responsible for her and the other astronauts' deaths and damn Reagan for his compensating eulogy of how the astronauts went to "touch the face of God". He was complicit in their deaths.
Listen you DUmb fuk, the president has no control in NASA business except funding.

Title: Re: Space Shuttle Challenger blame game
Post by: jukin on February 08, 2012, 04:07:21 PM
This is "rocket science" so all DUches are automatically excluded.
Title: Re: Space Shuttle Challenger blame game
Post by: JohnnyReb on February 08, 2012, 04:08:36 PM
Have they gotten to "It's Bush's fault" yet?
Title: Re: Space Shuttle Challenger blame game
Post by: Skul on February 08, 2012, 04:09:54 PM
And the "stupid scrunt of the week award" goes too......
Quote
Response to no_hypocrisy (Reply #11)
Tue Feb 7, 2012, 03:13 PM
 CaliforniaPeggy (93,555 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore

12. Thank you for that information.

I was unaware of the White House's complicity in this tragedy.  
It didn't.
You're stupid.
Go write a poem to prove it.
Title: Re: Space Shuttle Challenger blame game
Post by: thundley4 on February 08, 2012, 04:16:03 PM
LINKO (http://www.democraticunderground.com/101446387#post11)
Listen you DUmb fuk, the president has no control in NASA business except funding.



That is only partly true.  Sure Obama has pretty much killed any pride in US space exploration and has left us to hitch rides with the Russians, but don't forget his one goal for NASA:  Outreach to his Muslim Brothers.
Title: Re: Space Shuttle Challenger blame game
Post by: Carl on February 08, 2012, 04:35:09 PM
This is another bullshit conspiracy theory that was debunked 2 seconds after some lunatic lefty first spewed it back in 1986. :bird:
Title: Re: Space Shuttle Challenger blame game
Post by: miskie on February 08, 2012, 04:39:35 PM
The Challenger disaster ? Really ?

I mean, comeon.. can't you primitives do something new for a change ?

Oh wait -- this is 'revenge' for those Kennedy intern memoirs, isn't it... now I understand...  :whatever:
Title: Re: Space Shuttle Challenger blame game
Post by: Ogre on February 08, 2012, 04:41:07 PM
This is "rocket science" so all DUches are automatically excluded.
Oh, I'm sure Nad's will be along shortly.  I didn't see rocket scientist on her current resume, but I'll spot you $5 that see has had experience in this area.
Title: Re: Space Shuttle Challenger blame game
Post by: Vagabond on February 08, 2012, 05:30:22 PM
The shuttle program was an expensive disaster.  Saturn V rockets were overall better, had improvements on that design been pursued, we would be further along in reaching out to space.

The shuttle program overran all estimates on cost per launch and time between flights.  It's development cost NASA any manned deep space mission capability.  It's rocket booster and fuel tank system being mounted beside the main space verhicle instead of below has caused two disastrous failures.

What is NASA trying to do now?  Build a Saturn V rocket.


Title: Re: Space Shuttle Challenger blame game
Post by: Bodadh on February 08, 2012, 06:03:23 PM
My lord, this kind of stupid should hurt.  :hammer:
Title: Re: Space Shuttle Challenger blame game
Post by: jukin on February 09, 2012, 01:45:04 PM
Oh, I'm sure Nad's will be along shortly.  I didn't see rocket scientist on her current resume, but I'll spot you $5 that see has had experience in this area.

LMFAO, ^5 I should have thought of that.
Title: Re: Space Shuttle Challenger blame game
Post by: AllosaursRus on February 09, 2012, 04:43:31 PM
That is only partly true.  Sure Obama has pretty much killed any pride in US space exploration and has left us to hitch rides with the Russians, but don't forget his one goal for NASA:  Outreach to his Muslim Brothers.

You're right! He's doin' his damnedest to give Iran Ballistic missiles capable of hittin' the US with nuclear warheads! ****in' prick!

After all, he's done a damn good job of givin' the Muslim Brotherhood control of a helluva lot of our military hardware! Up to and including A1 Abrams!