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Old June 18th 06, 01:14 PM posted to sci.space.station
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Default "Managers" cleared the shuttle???

Nasa managers cleared the shuttle for lift-off even though the
agency's top safety officer and its lead engineer objected,
officials said on Saturday.


There's a more detailed account at
http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts121/060617july1/
including some lengthy quotes from Griffin.

I would say that Griffin is guilty of some sloppy and wishful
thinking. For example, saying "I believe that our models are quite
conservative" (which is not reassuring unless you know something about
how conservative) or "we have 113 flights (sic) with this vehicle with
these ice-frost ramps under our belt" (we got away with it until now,
so it must not be a problem).

In some more defensible statements, he points to dealing with a foam
impact via "repair, launch on need, extended safe haven on the
station, asking our Russian partners for help, maybe some or all of
the above". I guess my question is whether we have some reasonable
confidence that one of those things will work. There doesn't seem to
be a clear idea of which of those options would be the one to go with.
But it does seem to be important to Griffin's thinking - he feels he
is risking a shuttle this way ("programmatic risk"), not risking a
crew.

I also would say there is something positive in Griffin's comments,
and that is accepting that there is risk. At some level, people in
the shuttle program have always known that there is risk (much greater
than, say, flying in a commercial or general aviation aircraft), but I
don't recall it being acknowledged as openly or publicly as this
before.