28 Comments

I can attest to these events as they were related to me many years ago by Art Robinson PhD who had studied under Richard Feynman and was a close friend of his. The Commission was a cover-up and because of his age, they thought they could get Dr. Feynman to rubber stamp their conclusions. Not realizing Feynman was still sharp as a tack, he asked where the mock-up model of the rocket was and took the O-rings out of the model. Then in testimony on live TV, Feynman dipped the O-rings in ice water which immediately snapped when put under stress. He blew up there cover-up right on live TV. God rest Dr. Feynman.

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Bravo! Truth, & moral courage.

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I remember Feynman's demonstration at the begining of a conference/meeting. He twirled a sample of the seal material for the booster in a cup of ice water for a while then dropped it on the table, the material shatttering. The room was very quiet.

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There is a very famous Harvard Business School Case Study on the Challenger disaster which is a CLASSIC taught in MBA programs. But the fact that it is the Challenger is masked as it is presented as another industry, not the space shuttle. Deep into the professor-led analysis, the prof reveals what the case is really about, and what the results were. It provides a shocking perspective and (one hopes) a valuable lesson in how deficient, cowardly, politicized self-interest on the part of management overriding sincere & earnest professional engineering expertise [GENUINE expertise, NOT Fauci "I am The Science" bureaucratic contempt & lack of integrity POSTURING as "expertise"] can literally lead to horrific disaster.

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Upton Sinclair: “It’s difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it!”

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I am amazed at your courage and I thank you for sharing your knowledge and opinions.

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I had always thought NASA to be top notch, but now, even the moon landing is challenged.

https://philberg.substack.com/p/bark-at-the-moon

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Greedy and immoral cowards is an apt description!

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NASA is a fubar money pit. Billions for what????

No, we never landed on the moon. Absolutely hilarious!

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But I saw it "live on TV" in 1969. 🤔 2001 a Space Oddesey in 1968 made me want to believe. Movies aren't propaganda efforts are they?

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Well, they put on a really big show. Great sets. Great footage of the 'lunar rover'! I can't believe we bought it all.

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I believe the engineers who called that out were fired

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Further moral cowardice compounds the original 'mistake.'

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Morten Thiokol who made the seals in Utah emphatically stressed the seals would fail below the critical temperature threshold

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Fascinating. The low orbit temps decrease as the vehicle ascends. Must be the temp change on the ground cold to super heated on blast-off. Amazing design failure

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You met up with Dr .Kevin McCairn and Charles Rixey in Japan, when can we have a podcast with you guys? Both are doing extremely important work.

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It's really interesting when you understand how many of the mistakes were made and overlooked by Mormons. Contractors, supervisors, and NASA personnel. Talk about a cult mentality.

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Extremely interesting correlation, Shelley. Well done. Not because I have any feeling one way or another about Mormons, but through practicing Buddhism, I know the beguiling and duplicitous nature of illusion or "mistaken opinion or belief." It's like a trap...one we've spun ourselves. When people are inculcated to see one dimension, that's all they see. These inculcations are like eyeglasses...the proverbial rosy-colored ones are famous...but they represent every hue in the spectrum. When Buddhism talks about freeing oneself from "life's illusions," this, imo, is what they're talking about. Not some metaphysical, religious claptrap so often spun around the word "illusions" showing no understanding of the depth of illusion or some say delusion. In the real world, delusion has real consequences as you point out.

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Loved the book, "Genius" about Feynman. Alan Alda did a one man play about him at the Kennedy Center.

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Thank you, Michael, for speaking out on top highlights of NASA, the awful (many say purposeful "accidents" in at least one case). NASA has been associated with the nickname “Never A Straight Answer” due to its history of not providing clear and concise information to the public.

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Good morning that happened, my partner and I were hanging drywall camp Pendleton. We were too upset and we took the day off.

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What to make of the surviving “twins” of the Challenger accident? Certainly strange, even if the conventional narrative is true and they are indeed “twins.”

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