Did environmentalism bring down Columbia?

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | February 2, 2003 | Joseph Farah

[AdamSelene235]

The original O-rings on Challenger were asbestos based and worked fine until NASA changed them in order to satisfy the Earth Worshippers.

[KevinDavis]

Let me answer that question... YES!

Space Ping! This is the space ping list! Let me know if you want on or off this list!

[KevinDavis]

Why blame George Bush for the problems at NASA?

[Doe Eyes]

Since it was obviously Clinton's fault.

[sauropod]

"The problems began when the space agency switched to materials and parts that were considered more "environmentally friendly," according to a NASA report obtained by WorldNetDaily."

My hatred for the eco-fascists grows daily.

[sauropod]

The NASA account is an account of convenience for Congress just like the Defense account.

The problem is Congress. Talk to them.

BTW, welcome to FR, newbie.

[Swordmaker]

The original O-rings on Challenger were asbestos based and worked fine until NASA changed them in order to satisfy the Earth Worshippers.

No, they were always made of the same substance... the political problem of the O-rings is that they were there at all!

Senator Jake Garn (R) was chair of the Air and Space Committee of the Senate and a NASA supporter. Garn wanted his state, Utah, to get the major contract for the booster rocket system. If I recall correctly, two other companies with assembly plants in Georgia and Florida were also bidding for the project. Their designs matched the original one-piece design for the boosters and could be barged to Cape Kennedy. Morton/Thiokol, the Utah company championed by Garn, would have to ship the boosters by train which precluded the one piece design, so a modular booster was designed with the O-rings required for sealing the joints between modules. The modules were just the right size to be loaded sidways on flat cars and fit through the necessary railroad tunnels on the way from Utah to Florida.

Although the system was more expensive than the single piece units, the contract was awarded to Morton/Thiokol to please Jake Garn... political reasons. The rest is history.

[Itzlzha]

Talk to George Bush.

No, you are talking out your nether-region.

A Bush budget for 2002 would be working off IMPOTUS-X42's budget levels, and X-42's flunkies and bag men's projections to Congress.

Also, thanks to Yumpin' Jim Jeffords...Bush had Dasshole to deal with, as well as a war on terrorism that he inherited from the Sinkmaster!

Place the blame where it really belongs...on IMPOTUS-X42's enviroMENTAList Nazi crap science and propoganda, as well as his budget cuts so X-42 could receive a hummer at his convenience.

THAT is where the blame lies.

[Swordmaker]

The premise is nonsense. It's the job of NASA to get it right, period. I saw a picture of that wing before the flight, and it had huge gashes in it. The bottom line is the the government has strung NASA out so much it can't afford to not take stupid risks, so this happened.

Are you saying you SAW gashes in the wing BEFORE LIFT-OFF????

If so, you are the ONLY ONE WHO DID!

Are you the new psychic working for a tabloid or just another DemocRat Underground troll?

Looking at your signup date, I suspect the latter...

[soycd]

About 10 klicks to left will get you back over to your DUmmy website.

[Swordmaker]

Who's in charge here? No one?

Well, Sundrop, I suspect you will be meeting Jim Robinson or one of his system administrators sooner rather than later on your way out the door... By the by, yellow may be a good color for you.

[comnet]

Posted on Fri, Aug. 08, 2003

Families of Columbia crew await shuttle report and want it to make a difference
JUAN A. LOZANO
Associated Press

HOUSTON - Seeing the thing that brought down the space shuttle Columbia filled Jon Salton with sadness.

His sister, Laurel Clark, was one of the seven astronauts who died when the shuttle shattered on its return to Earth more than six months ago.

He viewed the video of the impact test in July that showed a chunk of foam insulation knocking a giant hole in shuttle wing parts.

"It's hard to watch that," he said. "It's utterly obvious now that type of impact could cause an orbiter to break apart.

"It didn't make me angry. It just made me sad."

NASA officials who didn't believe foam could do such damage "really missed the boat," Salton said in a telephone interview from Albuquerque, N.M., where he lives. The breakaway foam that slammed into the shuttle's left wing during Columbia's launch is being blamed for creating a hole that let in hot atmospheric gases that led to its destruction.

Once employed by a NASA contractor, Salton has been watching closely the work of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, which will issue its report on the shuttle disaster at the end of this month.

Part of him wants NASA to feel the sting of the report's criticism.

The other astronauts' families have been watching, too, not all as intensely as Salton, nor with such a critical eye. Some like Evelyn Husband, wife of Columbia commander Rick Husband, and Barbara Anderson, mother of astronaut Michael Anderson, are simply awaiting the final report.

"I'd like to wait until they finish the work of the investigation committee. Then I'll get a better picture," said Eliezer Wolferman, the 80-year-old father of Israel's first astronaut, Ilan Ramon.

"We have read (about the investigation) in the newspapers. I'd like to have something official," he said in a telephone interview from his home in the Israeli town of Omer.

Most family members who spoke with The Associated Press said they simply want the shuttle fixed and able to fly again more safely. Some said they appreciated the candor of the accident board. The family of astronaut David Brown could not be reached for comment.

Laurel Clark's husband, Jonathan, said he was grateful for the foam test because it confirms the cause of the accident.

"I felt it was great they were able to find a more definitive answer," he said. "I really don't look at it emotionally. I look at it analytically. I'm glad we found what did this."

Some peace of mind has come from the ongoing investigation and the 13 board members' work, said Clark, a NASA flight surgeon at Johnson Space Center.

"Talking to other family members, (we have) been very pleased with their thoroughness, their professionalism," he said. "They truly are an independent, free-thinking group. For that we're all very grateful."

Clark, 50, thinks the preliminary recommendations the board has already made, including finding ways to do in-orbit inspections and repairs and better preflight safety checks, are very prudent.

Still, he says, "It's one thing to say it but another to do it."

Both he and Salton pointed to a NASA culture that may make questioning decisions difficult.

"There's this cultural mind-set that's present here," said Clark. "It's not an evil thing. It's great to have that 'let's go' spirit, but sometimes you push things to beyond where you should. But this is not about fault, it's about cause."

Salton worked five years at NASA designing tools used on spacewalks. He said that while he believes there was nothing malicious about the space agency's faulty assessment of the foam strike, he thinks it fell prey to a cultural attitude that's existed since before the 1986 Challenger accident.

"You want to succeed so badly that you tend to justify things that may not be logical to a more objective party," he said. "All the technical recommendations seem somewhat obvious. The biggest thing that I'm anxious to see is what they say about the cultural practices. Those are much, much more important."

Salton, 37, who now works for Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, said he hopes the board's final report will have accountability measures.

While he wants shuttles to fly again, he is bothered that NASA has already set a time frame to return to space. Overall, he has been pleased by the accident board's work.

"The report should be a sharp, kind of stinging feeling to NASA. I like the fact the board has been pretty candid. It's a good example of the kind of integrity that NASA could follow," he said.

The reactions of others are more tempered.

Husband, 44, who lives in Houston, doesn't fault NASA or anybody for the accident.

"Hindsight, like they say, is 20/20," she said. "So now it's easy to say, 'Oh we should have done that.'"

Later in a statement she issued after the foam impact test, Husband said: "My prayer is that NASA will fix it and get back into space. That is what my husband Rick would have wanted."

Michael Anderson's mother, Barbara Anderson, also does not cast blame. Her son was a pilot almost 20 years. "There was danger there," she said from her home in Spokane, Wash. "It could have happened in a plane as well as in a shuttle. We accepted it."

Audrey McCool of Las Vegas has only followed in a general way the investigation into the accident that killed her son, William McCool.

She looks forward to the report and a detailed explanation of the cause. But she is philosophical.

"What's done is done," she said. "No repairs will bring Columbia back but you want to prevent future disasters. These seven people will have died in vain if we do not carry on with the work they were committed to."

The Chawla family, too, wants to see future shuttle flights. Girish Chawla of suburban Atlanta, younger brother of crew member Kalpana Chawla, said his family "has accepted that this was an act of existence or an act of God."

"Mother said the show must go on. Father was sometimes emotional, saying it was a stupid thing that caused the accident. But it was just the mood of the moment," Chawla said. "Just because Kalpana died doesn't mean it shouldn't go on."

ON THE NET

Columbia Accident Investigation Board: http://www.caib.us

[RightWhale]

Why blame George Bush for the problems at NASA?

The President maybe didn't cause the problems, but he has the power to get the problems fixed, transfer personnel, order use of throwaway boosters, reorganize everything. The Vice President has historically had responsibility for NASA. I don't know if Cheney is this position. The President can simply send a memo: 'fix NASA, scuttle the Shuttle, build a manned moon base.' If it's within the mission statement and Congressional funding allows, it will be done.

[KevinDavis]

I agree with you there....

[KC_for_Freedom]

political reasons. The rest is history.

I had not heard this piece of the Challenger story, and it did not make the Challenger final report.

The problem with the environmentally more sensitive processes that all the defense contractors have bought into is that no one has the guts to challenge the new processes when they do not produce equivalent properties. None of the environmentally friendly compounds are as good as the original ones at doing the jobs specified. But it is far easier to issue a memo saying we are compliant then it is to deal with a materials engineer complaining. Those engineers who complain are moved to less sensitive positions in the company. (Like management?)

Feynmann tried to explain that it was part of the culture not to pass bad news up to the higher levels of management. This seems to be the case with Colombia as well. There were ample examples of sweeping the issue of fragile foam under the rug.

[Swordmaker]

Actually, they were visible in a picture taken of the left wing edge on the previous flight. The picture was published on drudge for a few days. The Shuttle could fly with such things, but the issue of what something hitting a wing in that condition apparently was another matter. One of the pre-flight checks noted there was also a very deep gouge from a previous insult with the same insulation.

YOU ARE A LIAR!

There are no pictures of damage that was allowed to remain on the shuttle for the next launch. i can believe a POST-flight check noting a "deep gouge" but not one that would be allowed to remain in place for the next flight. There were pictures of wing damage to previous STS missions however it would NEVER be allowed to remain nor would the shuttle be allowed to take off with such damage!

Before every STS launch, ALL damaged tiles are replaced and the shuttles launch with a surface that meets launch standards.

The political decisions and the arrogance of NASA management is enough without you falsely raising the spectre of criminal negligence and depraved indifference. The BS you disinformation artists post is reprehensible.