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SFDinKC t1_j5vnr4y wrote

I was working at Morton Thiokol as a preliminary design engineer when the Challenger accident happened. I had only been there 3 months and it was my first job out of college. I remember a lot more talk on that morning being about how Al McDonald was going to get fired as soon as the shuttle made orbit for not signing off on the flight readiness statement the night before. In the few weeks after the disaster I heard more about Boisjoly. Mostly how people thought he was starting to have a nervous breakdown because he felt so bad that he was unable to get NASA to take the o-ring cold issue seriously enough in the months leading up to the launch.

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danielravennest t1_j5w3jq3 wrote

Small world department. I was working for Boeing's space systems division at the time, and we had a two-stage solid rocket in the cargo bay that flight. It was intended to send a NASA communications satellite to high orbit.

People in our division knew the astronauts, because we trained them how to deploy the upper stage with the satellite from the cargo bay. Until they found our rocket intact on the ocean floor, we didn't know if the accident was our fault, because it was 27,000 pounds of rocket fuel. Man that was a tense couple of weeks.

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mike-foley t1_j5wu3un wrote

That gave me chills.. Can't imagine how it impacted all of you.

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danielravennest t1_j5zmnfi wrote

For me personally, I went to work on the Space Station project the following year. Space systems is my career, but Shuttle technology carrying people was too flawed. That was borne out by the second Shuttle accident, and I fear for crew flying on the SLS rocket, which is still Shuttle tech (in some cases literally reused old Shuttle parts).

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zoinkability t1_j61hogk wrote

The one potential saving grace I see for SLS is that there is a realistic escape aystem

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mike-foley t1_j5znnok wrote

I don't see SLS lasting beyond 3-5 launches.

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JohnHazardWandering t1_j63qdgh wrote

That's more likely due to it being crazy expensive, not a safety issue though, right?

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mike-foley t1_j63ssuz wrote

Crazy expensive, sure.. But that means there won’t be as many launches as the Shuttle so the odds are in its favor that it won’t go boom. Maybe. I guess we’ll see.

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[deleted] t1_j622wvr wrote

[deleted]

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DirkMcDougal t1_j6252j7 wrote

Some of the SRB segments are literally re-used segments from shuttle SRB's. And the the first few flights are using RS-25's which flew on shuttle missions.... then throwing them in the ocean.

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sardoodledom_autism t1_j5yenm6 wrote

I had to read sections of his book Truth Lies and Orings in my professional ethics class. It’s amazing how the man was right, did everything he could to stop the accident, then still got demoted and punished.

He won in the end but you have to wonder if 9 times out of 10 PR departments would have hung him out to dry

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MugillacuttyHOF37 t1_j613snt wrote

Do you know if he tried to go to the media to expose the issue or was that even a possibility?

Not pointing fingers, I'm just curious as it was before my time and my knowledge of the accident is just articles I've found on the web.

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jason2354 t1_j61uc9u wrote

It was the night before the launch before the internet.

Even if he could get to someone, there would be zero reach to the story in such a short amount of time.

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MugillacuttyHOF37 t1_j61zu9s wrote

I did not know it was the night before...wow, what a tough position for him to be in. Thanks for the answer.

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sardoodledom_autism t1_j65enb4 wrote

He went to the congressional hearings and threw everyone under the bus, then was immediately demoted. Congress had to step in and fight to get his position back

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Dumguy1214 t1_j5vx706 wrote

history is laced with persons that have figured something out and labelled as mad men

who believes something is so small you cant see it

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BDW3 t1_j5y2aee wrote

This is the theory of the tenth man. But very few companies and industries execute that theory sadly.

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