Space exploration

[cutter]

The first human to set foot on the moon was Neil Armstrong. He did this, less than a year before I was born. Just under 16 years later, I watched my first shuttle launch in real time. I was 15 and home sick from school. I saw Dick Scobee, Michael Smith, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Reznic, Ronald Mcnair, Gregory Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe give their lives to further the progression of mankind beyond planet Earth.

I'm watching a documentary about that launch right now. It's almost the 35th anniversary of that tragic day, and the memories still bring tears to my eyes. They gave their lives, not for power or war, but for mankind's future, for our betterment. We remember, and hold almost sacred, so many days and accomplishments of mankind, but where is the memorial on January 28, 1986, and later, the memorial of February 1, 2003, for the astronauts of Columbia? Where are the moments of silence for the 15 astronauts and 4 cosmonauts who gave their lives for our future?

[papaof2]

Or the prison sentence for the Flight Director who disregarded multiple warnings about the cold that January morning and went ahead with a launch in temperatures 20F below the NASA-requested design temperature range of the booster rockets. It was more important to have "good publicity" by not scratching yet another shuttle launch. The seals on the boosters were rated only down to 50F - NASA's design. There was ice on much of the structure that morning so well out of the design range and no surprise that a seal failed.

In my court, that stupid, arrogant seeker of "good publicity" is guilty of voluntary manslaughter at a minimum but murder 1 is at the top of my list.

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The burn-up on re-entry from ablative tile damage was something that the early shuttle missions would not have experienced as they carried a tile repair kit. It wasn't onboard the later missions - maybe to have more payload for someone's pet project? Long term analysis has rather certainly located the source of failure - some of the foam insulation that was often shed by the boosters during launch. Testing has shown a large enough section of foam coming off could have damaged a leading edge enough to allow the X thousand degree heat of re-entry inside the skin of the shuttle. The original ablative tile repair kit was deemed adequate to have repaired the damage to Columbia.

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Sort of like asking Captain Edward Smith whether the Titanic had enough lifeboats. It did, as long as humans and circumstances did nothing to invoke the need of those lifeboats.

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No celebrations because the institution (NASA, US .gov) doesn't want to be reminded of the institutional failure?