Challenger Tragedy - In Depth, and Deeply Felt 351
Patchw0rk F0g writes "On this, the anniversary of the Challenger disaster, Jay Barbree has a moving and in-depth piece on this international disaster." From the article: "During several earlier shuttle missions, disaster did everything it could to crawl into the shuttle launch system and turn it into tumbling flaming wreckage. The primary O-rings on those flights suffered severe erosion from superheated gases, sometimes accompanied by lesser erosion. And the erosion had occurred after launch temperatures much higher than on this freezing Florida day -- 53 degrees was the lowest launch-time temperature up to that time. The booster engineers felt helpless. For months, they had been studying the O-ring seal problem. They knew a disaster was coming, but no one stepped forward and said, 'Stop this train until it's fixed.'"
Re:"international disaster" (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I remember exactly where I was... (Score:3, Funny)
I am running, I am running and dodging, I am runnning, dodging and ducking... it ain't easy in this nomex suit.
Re:This is one of the problems..... (Score:4, Funny)
Exactly. That reminds me of the joke in Armegeddon:
Rockhound: "You know we're sitting on four million pounds of fuel, one nuclear weapon and a thing that has 270,000 moving parts built by the lowest bidder. Makes you feel good, doesn't it?"
Re:"international disaster" (Score:3, Funny)
Re:It bears repeating. But with government addenda (Score:5, Funny)
John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth(1),
And danced(2) the skies on laughter silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed(3) and joined the tumbling mirth(4)
Of sun-split clouds(5) and done a hundred things(6)
You have not dreamed of -- Wheeled and soared and swung(7)
High in the sunlit silence(8). Hov'ring there(9)
I've chased the shouting wind(10) along and flung(10)
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious(12), burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights(13) with easy grace,
Where never lark, or even eagle(14) flew;
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space(15),
Put out my hand(16), and touched the face of God.
Re:I remember exactly where I was... (Score:3, Funny)
What? Too soon...?
Re:They were both bad and both survivable (Score:3, Funny)
I love it when any space-related stories get posted here. Half of slashdot suddenly thinks they're rocket scientists. It can often be funny watching them try...
Re:"international disaster" (Score:2, Funny)
Only if the British and Spanish get to keep America.
Re:"international disaster" (Score:3, Funny)
Won't they have to borrow it back from Soviet Russia? [wikipedia.org] Which brings me to the next necessarily lame part... in Soviet Russia, moon lands on you.