Word: morton
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...disaster: "At this particular juncture it seems like an avoidable accident rather than an unavoidable one." Later he charged that it was becoming "increasingly apparent that NASA made a high-level, political decision to go ahead with a morning launch of the shuttle, despite strong objections from Morton Thiokol engineers, who said the temperature was far too cold for a safe launch...
...sudden turnabout? In closed meetings the commission had grilled top NASA officials as well as engineers from Morton Thiokol, the company that makes the solid-fuel boosters suspected of triggering the disaster. The commissioners could scarcely believe what they were hearing as they made some startling discoveries: 1) the engineers had adamantly opposed the launch because of the unusually cold weather at Cape Canaveral; 2) on the morning of the tragedy, an infrared temperature-sensing instrument had shown abnormal "cold spots" of 7 degrees and 9 degrees F on the lower part of the right-hand booster; and 3) most...
Earlier in the week, engineers from Morton Thiokol, which manufactures the shuttle's booster rockets, said they argued against the launch because they feared booster safety seals would not work properly after a night in subfreezing weather...
NASA's Mulloy conceded that the rings start to lose their resiliency at a temperature of 50 degrees F. But despite some reservations expressed the day before the tragedy by booster manufacturer Morton Thiokol, Mulloy said, NASA technicians had concluded (and Thiokol experts concurred) that the seals would work. Mulloy later volunteered that even if the primary O ring failed, the backup ring "would seat as it has done in the past, even under those temperature conditions...
...Post also said that, "at the urging of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration," officials of booster manufacturer Morton Thiokol agreed to the cold-weather launch on the eve of liftoff after twice recommending against...