Sean Conolly wrote in message
.. .

I'm new here, so I'll bite: why does your son publicly oppose
your position on this?

I know that I didn't buy into all of my father's views on NASA
(despite his long history in the space program), but I would
certainly would not have taken any disagreements public.

That's a fine question; I'm overjoyed that someone like you
finally came forth to ask it. I don't know what your own
professional interests are, but Dan chose biological science
at an early age. As a youth he had great concern for pollution
of our ecological systems and how that degraded our health.

He hadn't been out of the Air Force long (after duty in the
Azores in his chosen field) when I warned him that Challenger
was about to be the object of a launch disaster. He was trying
to finish his degree requirements on the GI bill at the time.

He became involved in trying to help me get media attention
for my prelaunch warnings, along with Lt. Col. Bill Middleton
(USAF Ret'd). After I had given presentations to a respected
legal group and to an AIAA-based university forum, AF Col.
Ed O'Connor, in charge of the Challenger recovery forces, paid
Dan and Bill a personal visit at Dan's home. Ed unloaded several
NASA internal documents on Dan and asked Dan to give them
to his Senator.

From that point on, Dan took his own, biological view of the
catastrophe. It centered on fitting his belief (from the day of
the disaster) that the crew could have been saved, to NASA's
explanation of an O-ring failure. Because I refused to go along
with the primary Rogers conclusions, he became angry with me.

I think his opposition to me on the cause stems from his lack
of adequate technical background in aerospace. I think the
difference between you and him relative to publicly opposing
me here and elsewhere is that he was the victim of a bigamous
marriage (as was I). After he was about ten years old, he had
a series of other fathers and father figures. Having invested
considerable effort in obtaining his own FOIA data, he feels
that he understands what happened to the crew. He has great
ambition to tell that story in a book, but it opposes my story.

--
John Thomas Maxson, Retired Engineer (Aerospace)
Author, The Betrayal of Mission 51-L (www.mission51l.com)