How the Reagan Administration Caused the Greatest Tragedy of the Space Age

[Ernesto]

And got away with it..........................

"NASA immediately moved to implement a cover-up, but more was going on than met the eye. A few days later a Presidential Commission was created by the White House which had its own cover-up agenda, namely to conceal White House involvement in the launch decision in connection with publicity for the teacher-in-space mission."

"So I was sitting with my wife Phyllis in our house in rural Virginia with a pile of documents showing just how thoroughly NASA was aware of the O-ring problems and how they knew such a disaster could happen. I approached the Presidential Commission but sensed something was strange with their approach so quickly backed off. I tried to document internally that engineers were saying it was a preventable accident, but NASA confiscated all the copies of my report – except the one I took home, of course."

"Suffice it to say that almost everything the public learned about Challenger, notably the facts that the O-ring seals were known to be deficient and that the night before the launch, engineers from Morton Thiokol had argued vociferously against launching in the cold weather, originated with whistleblowers who defied their organizations to speak out. These included myself at NASA headquarters, Roger Boisjoly and Alan McDonald of Morton Thiokol, a member of the Presidential Commission, Nobel Prize winner Dr. Richard Feynman, and John Young, NASA’s most veteran astronaut. From one point of view, my book is the largely untold story of the whistleblowers.'

http://www.globalresearch.ca/challenger-revealed-how-the-reagan-administration-caused-the-greatest-tragedy-of-the-space-age/8658?print=1

[niyad]

1. thank you. was just thinking about that this weekend.

[Doctor_J]

2. A lot of this came out at the time. The director of NASA during that period was a

poltical hack, friend of Reagan, who had never worked in aerospace before taking that job. If a Dem president had done this in the era of Hate Radio, (s)he would have been impeached and probably tried for 7 counts of murder. As it is Reagan got a pass as usual.

[Duppers]

3. Truth.

When my hubs went into NASA LaRC that morning, the last thing he said to me was "It's too damn cold to launch--those rings will fail. They better not do it."

The scientists across the NASA fields knew it was preventable and knew why it happened. Dumbass political appointees sucking up to a dumbass president.

It was devastating. I sobbed for hrs.

[Javaman]

4. that just had to be so crushing for you and your husband

while I was in shock at the news of the accident and pissed that the launch went ahead even with the knowledge of the O-rings, I just can't imagine what it was like for you, your husband and those directly involved with the program.

[Duppers]

6. Thank you.

So much!

[Wilms]

5. Remembering Roger Boisjoly: He Tried To Stop Shuttle Challenger Launch

snip

Another shuttle program manager, Lawrence Mulloy, didn't hide his disdain. "My God, Thiokol," he said. "When do you want me to launch — next April?"

These words and this debate were not known publicly until our interviews with Boisjoly and his colleague. They told us that the NASA pressure caused Thiokol managers to "put their management hats on," as one source told us. They overruled Boisjoly and the other engineers and told NASA to go ahead and launch.

snip

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2012/02/06/146490064/remembering-roger-boisjoly-he-tried-to-stop-shuttle-challenger-launch