,,Houston....I think we've got a problem
Posted on 02/09/2007 9:24:42 AM PST by Fitzcarraldo
AS A FORMER NASA astronaut training manager responsible for crew training for shuttle missions, I was not entirely surprised by the initial reports of the sad, bizarre case of Lisa Marie Nowak.
This isn't the first case of astronauts having difficulties in their personal lives. Usually, the straying astronaut simply resigns or retires, and everything is hushed up. But being charged with assault, attempted kidnapping and attempted murder is far greater than anything I ever observed or imagined could occur. Perhaps this tragedy will bring some of the agency's long-ignored problems into the open.
First is the tremendous and unnecessary pressures brought to bear on the members of NASA's cloistered astronaut office. This is the division at the Johnson Space Center in Houston where the astronauts work. It is the office that assigns each astronaut his or her job. Since most astronauts are waiting to be put on a mission, these jobs — such as working on the shuttle hydraulic system or sitting in on meetings about a new science payload — are important, but they're usually no more difficult than the ones accomplished routinely by other NASA engineers and scientists. The difference is the astronauts come under constant scrutiny by their management to determine who will fly and who will not. Some never get assigned to a space mission, yet they are called astronauts as long as they work for NASA.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Who cares, really, why she cracked? Any more than I really care about Anna-Nicole Smith. The world is full of people whose lives are train wrecks, and I'll be happy if I can just avoid becoming one of them.
Metal mallets...
There is that. I've had one or more children in diapers for the last 16 years, so that part of the story really got my attention!
We are going to get bombarded with 'explanations' of why Nowak went over the edge.
She was trying to balance a career with a homelife, she was under tremendous stress in the program, her marriage was breaking up, etc.
Well, every one of the 'excuses' was her own choice.
She voluntarily joined the astronaut program, she decided to work and raise a family,and.. she is the one that found an outside lover, breaking up another family in the process.
I have zero sympathy for her.
BTW, her arrest pic looks like she was on crack or meth.
If the bozos at NASA were smart, they'd uphold the same standards as the military in terms of periodic screening and "morals".
I think the thing that is stunning about this, for those of us who remember the Mercury program, relates specifically to her job. These people are supposed to be vetted to the extreme. They are supposed to be the coolest of the cool, able to due calculus in their heads while their oxygen is running out and their brain is at half speed. I thought that I was as cynical as I could get about human nature. But this incident has disappointed me.
being a woman in a man's job is obviously the problem. This Clinton era affirmative action appointee should never have been there. When women leave their God-ordained roles, trouble invariably follows.
From what Hickam has described, you never really know. She didn't have control over the situation (on going up again), and that must really be the drag on her personality type.
,,Houston....I think we've got a problem
12 inches
Yes whack.
Working for the government?
"They are supposed to be the coolest of the cool, able to due calculus in their heads while their oxygen is running out and their brain is at half speed."
Well...in a way she was being "cool"
She was losing her guy and had come up with an extremely well thought out plan to eliminate the competition.
People often make the mistake that being smart and well educated necessarily makes a person moral - someone with strong character.
I think a person's character and personality is separate from the body of knowledge they hold in their head.
Is the person kind? empathetic? This has nothing to do with whether or not they were valedictorian.
" I thought that I was as cynical as I could get about human nature. But this incident has disappointed me."
Our society places great emphasis on status, competition, materialism....and the worse it gets the more we are going to see this type of thing as being commonplace.Well...it already IS commonplace - just not to this extreme degree.
This girl was used to having things her way...she was a "winner". Failure is not something she is used to.
She simply was determined to lose this man.
Compare her actions to the man's ex-wife.
The ex-wife was hurt deeply by this mess.
Did she try to hurt anyone?
"She simply was determined to lose this man."
Whooops...make that NOT!"
"There is that. I've had one or more children in diapers for the last 16 years, so that part of the story really got my attention!"
hee hee!
We have something in common there!
Really....I was quite happy NOT knowing how astronauts dealt with that sort of thing.
Thanks alot Lisa!
"being a woman in a man's job is obviously the problem. This Clinton era affirmative action appointee should never have been there. When women leave their God-ordained roles, trouble invariably follows."
There are plenty of career women who do not don pampers and pepper spray people.
I would say 99.99999% of career women do not do this.
"I disagree. In other jobs, the feed back is much more apparent. Most lawyers have multiple cases to measure themselves by, engineers have projects, doctors patients.
From what Hickam has described, you never really know. She didn't have control over the situation (on going up again), and that must really be the drag on her personality type."
I'm not sure what job "feedback" has to do as to whether or not a person goes psycho on a love rival.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.