benignvanilla wrote:
"Rusty B" wrote in message
. com...
snip
The spacecraft with the Russian-US crew on board made an
unauthorized off-target ballistic descent," he said.
snip

I love the wayspace guys put things. *laugh* Reminds me of the Challenger
accident, when the first negative words I heard, were something like, "We
have had a major malfunction."

Steve Nesbit had the most difficult job in the world at that moment. He had to
say something about what everyone was seeing, but he didn't have any
information to convey beyond that they knew something really, really bad had
happened.

Since most people would be inclined to fall back on something like "Oh, ****"
at moments like this (read cockpit voice recorder transcripts just before
crashes for confirmation, Nesbit's professionalism should be commended.

As for the quote above, there's more politics involved than merely concealing a
negative event. The Russians really are subtly blaming the Americans on the
crew for the error, and it's telling that they still use such phrases.

mail me via lakefxdan AT aol DOT com