[jlogajan]

The point is that firstly the cause of the Challenger explosion was determined and fixed -- despite the tinfoilers telling us they almost got away with covering it up. Nonsense.

In the movie The Caine Mutiny, Captain Queeg trys to relive his discovery of a duplicate key to the food locker -- which was his high point in life, but obviously, not meaningful to anyone else. Well, the Challenger non-cover up is being replayed in all these new Captain Queegs who think they've found another duplicate key ...

So put down your conspiracy theories and back away...

[kwyjibo]

The point is that firstly the cause of the Challenger explosion was determined and fixed -- despite the tinfoilers telling us they almost got away with covering it up.

That statement, while technically true, is not an accurate representation of the reality of the Challenger disaster. The company that supplied the O-rings designed them specifically for use within a range of temperatures specified by NASA. Prior to its final launch, Challenger had been sitting on the launch pad at ambient temperatures below the low functional temperature of the O-rings. For whatever reason (launch window closing, bad press, etc.) NASA decided to go ahead and launch despite the objections of the O-ring supplier, who warned of an O-ring failure due to out-of-spec temperatures.

The real cause of the Challenger explosion was NASA ignoring its own temperature guidelines for a shuttle launch.