Word: launchful
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...once been viewed as being too gentle to compete in the rough-and-tumble world of Washington bureaucracy. But after chairing three days of public hearings last week on how NASA reached the decision to launch the space shuttle Challenger on its doomed mission, former Secretary of State William Rogers was visibly--and vocally--angry...
Referring to the avalanche of documents concerning shuttle safety that the space agency passes from desk to desk, Rogers scolded some top NASA launch officials, "You eliminate the element of good judgment and common sense." Frustrated by conflicting accounts of positions taken at crucial preflight meetings, Rogers asked with cutting incredulity, "Does everybody know what everybody else is recommending?" He wondered aloud why those involved had not been required to take clear stands on life-and-death safety issues and had not had their positions recorded. And, Rogers concluded, he was certain the members of the presidential commission agreed with...
...shuttle's prime contractors: Morton Thiokol, which makes the solid-fuel boosters that are the main focus of the search for a cause of the disaster, and Rockwell International, which manufactures the orbiter. Officials and engineers of both companies insisted that they had opposed the launch, at least initially, because of the cold weather and ice at the pad. But the NASA officials who heard the complaints contended that the objections had never been raised as forcefully as the contractors now claim and that in the end the disagreements had been resolved. Thus the NASA experts felt no need...
...presidential commission continues its work, NASA's ambitious goal of launching 15 shuttle flights this year is bound to come under closer scrutiny. "There seems to have been a speedup policy at NASA," says Jerome Lederer, a former director of the space agency's office of manned flight safety, adding, "There are signs that complacency may have set in, and that is not good for safety." Insisted a NASA engineer: "We are being driven by a launch manifest, not hardware capability or concerns about anything else." NASA has in fact been pushing its contractors for faster delivery of shuttle components...
Rough as last week's revelations were on NASA, tougher times may lie ahead. The Rogers commission has scheduled for this week two days of public hearings at which key officials involved in the launch decision, as well as some of the experts who opposed the go-ahead, are expected to testify. Predicted one source close to the commission: "There will be a hanging." That assessment may be too harsh, but clearly the full story of why Challenger and its crew had been sent on a doomed mission remains to be told...