36 Years Ago today
-
In the book "Riding Rockets," astronaut Mike Mullane has some interesting things to say about the Charlie-Foxtrot of the decision to launch Challenger that day.
He also talks, with great fondness, about Judy Resnick, and how stupid it was to put a civilian on the craft.
-
In the book "Riding Rockets," astronaut Mike Mullane has some interesting things to say about the Charlie-Foxtrot of the decision to launch Challenger that day.
He also talks, with great fondness, about Judy Resnick, and how stupid it was to put a civilian on the craft.
So what did you think of Mike’s book? I think I mentioned here that in my past life I had a few pleasurable dinners and drinks with Col. Mullane. He is a truly gracious and down to earth person. Has plenty of delightful and funny stories and has absolutely zero tolerance of conspiracy theories and theorists.
-
So what did you think of Mike’s book? I think I mentioned here that in my past life I had a few pleasurable dinners and drinks with Col. Mullane. He is a truly gracious and down to earth person. Has plenty of delightful and funny stories and has absolutely zero tolerance of conspiracy theories and theorists.
@renauda I remembered your recommendation. I just loved his book. So many insights, so even-tempered and, actually, humble despite the arrogance that one expects in a fighter jockey.
https://nodebb.the-new-coffee-room.club/topic/98/so/273?_=1643407171298
He had a truly remarkable sense of humor as well.
https://nodebb.the-new-coffee-room.club/topic/8714/john-s-hand?_=1643407171301
I never knew that you had met him. Tell us more!
-
Mike was recommended to our industry association as a lunch guest speaker at our annual remediation symposium. We brought him in to speak on the normalization of deviance in the workplace. His presentation mesmerized the 800 delegates in attendance and Mullane was given a standing ovation. We brought him back two other times owing to popular demand. He filled the hall both times. As an organizer of the events I had the honour of spending a lot of recreation time with him during his visits. We still keep in touch from time to time by email.
-
Interesting article.
Bob Ebeling and other company engineers were watching at the Morton Thiokol booster rocket complex in Utah. They crowded into a conference room with Thiokol managers and executives; all focused on a large projection TV screen.
The night before, in the same conference room, Ebeling and his colleagues had tried to convince NASA booster rocket program managers phoning in from the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama that the cold weather made launching risky. The synthetic rubber O-rings lining the booster rocket joints stiffened in cold temperatures, and this would be the coldest launch ever by far. The Thiokol engineers feared blow-by would burn through both sets of O-rings, triggering an explosion at liftoff.
At first, Thiokol's engineers and executives officially recommended a launch delay. But the NASA officials on the line pushed back hard. The launch had already been delayed five times. The NASA officials said the engineers couldn't prove the O-rings would fail. One of those engineers, looking back on it now, 40 years later, says it was an unachievable burden of proof.
"It's impossible to prove that it's unsafe. Essentially, you have to show that it's going to fail," explains Brian Russell, who was a program manager at Morton Thiokol in 1986 and who was focused on the O-rings and booster rocket joints.
