[4711] in Depressing_Thoughts
Re: idiots
dryfoo@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (dryfoo@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Tue Nov 1 16:04:38 1994
Oh, it was a horrible screw-up and no fooling. The night before the launch
the company was telling the engineers to "put on their manager's hats" --
i.e. stop using their engineering caution and to think of the company's
bottom line.
The problems go way back before o-rings to the basic design of the boosters.
The decision to build them in sections (necessitating lots of kludging with
flanges/o-rings, etc), rather than in single units, was possibly politically
motivated.
Feynmann's second autobiographical book has a whole section devoted to his
service on the investigating committee. Interesting, and very depressing.
What's the class?
