Science 30 Years After Explosion, Challenger Engineer Still Blames Himself - Page 6

listopencil · 01-28-2016, 07:02 PM

Thirty years ago, as the nation mourned the loss of seven astronauts on the space shuttle Challenger, Bob Ebeling was steeped in his own deep grief. The night before the launch, Ebeling and four other engineers at NASA contractor Morton Thiokol had tried to stop the launch. Their managers and NASA overruled them. That night, he told his wife, Darlene, "It's going to blow up." When Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff, Ebeling and his colleagues sat stunned in a conference room at Thiokol's headquarters outside Brigham City, Utah. They watched the spacecraft explode on a giant television screen and they knew exactly what had happened.

Three weeks later, Ebeling and another engineer separately and anonymously detailed to NPR the first account of that contentious pre-launch meeting. Both were despondent and in tears as they described hours of data review and arguments. The data showed that the rubber seals on the shuttle's booster rockets wouldn't seal properly in cold temperatures and this would be the coldest launch ever. Ebeling, now 89, decided to let NPR identify him this time, on the 30th anniversary of the Challenger explosion. "I was one of the few that was really close to the situation," Ebeling recalls. "Had they listened to me and wait[ed] for a weather change, it might have been a completely different outcome." We spoke in the same house, kitchen and living room that we spoke in 30 years ago, when Ebeling didn't want his name used or his voice recorded. He was afraid he would lose his job.

"I think the truth has to come out," he says about the decision to speak privately then. "NASA ruled the launch," he explains. "They had their mind set on going up and proving to the world they were right and they knew what they were doing. But they didn't." A presidential commission found flaws in the space agency's decision-making process. But it's still not clear why NASA was so anxious to launch without delay. The space shuttle program had an ambitious launch schedule that year and NASA wanted to show it could launch regularly and reliably. President Ronald Reagan was also set to deliver the State of the Union address that evening and reportedly planned to tout the Challenger launch. Whatever the reason, Ebeling says it didn't justify the risk. "There was more than enough [NASA officials and Thiokol managers] there to say, 'Hey, let's give it another day or two,' " Ebeling recalls. "But no one did."

Ebeling retired soon after Challenger. He suffered deep depression and has never been able to lift the burden of guilt. In 1986, as he watched that haunting image again on a television screen, he said, "I could have done more. I should have done more." He says the same thing today, sitting in a big easy chair in the same living room, his eyes watery and his face grave. The data he and his fellow engineers presented, and their persistent and sometimes angry arguments, weren't enough to sway Thiokol managers and NASA officials. Ebeling concludes he was inadequate. He didn't argue the data well enough. A religious man, this is something he has prayed about for the past 30 years. "I think that was one of the mistakes that God made," Ebeling says softly. "He shouldn't have picked me for the job. But next time I talk to him, I'm gonna ask him, 'Why me? You picked a loser.' "

I reminded him of something his late colleague and friend Roger Boisjoly once told me. Boisjoly was the other Thiokol engineer who spoke anonymously with NPR 30 years ago. He came to believe that he and Ebeling and their colleagues did all they could. "We were talking to the right people," Boisjoly told me. "We were talking to the people who had the power to stop that launch." "Maybe," Ebeling says with a weak wave as I leave. "Maybe Roger's right."

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-w...blames-himself

listopencil · 01-29-2016, 10:25 PM

Maggie Gyllenhaal and Rose Wilder Lane

listopencil · 01-29-2016, 10:26 PM

http://justsomething.co/24-celebriti...from-the-past/

Just go look at all of them. I'm too lazy to post a bunch of pics.

Johnny Vegas · 01-29-2016, 10:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by listopencil

http://justsomething.co/24-celebriti...from-the-past/

Just go look at all of them. I'm too lazy to post a bunch of pics.

irrelevant. The comparisons I posted are of them just 30 years later. your link just gives pics of look a likes regardless of sex or era.

Dayze · 01-29-2016, 10:57 PM

some of the pictures etc.....it's SO obvious they're not the same people. Good lord.
...and this, coming from a guy who enjoys watching Ancient Aliens..........

yeah.

RobBlake · 01-30-2016, 12:49 AM

some of those astro. are scary similar and logical in progression of age lol.. however.. whats the advantage of faking a death lol

listopencil · 01-30-2016, 01:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Johnny Vegas

irrelevant. The comparisons I posted are of them just 30 years later. your link just gives pics of look a likes regardless of sex or era.

No, it's completely relevant. It shows that people can bear a resemblance to one another when there is obviously no connection between them. So the burden of proof is on you to show that those are the astronauts in the "older" pictures. If you can't then it's just more conspiracy theory nonsense.

Skyy God · 01-30-2016, 08:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

Sounds like some people at NASA have blood on their hands.

Eh, it probably went higher up.

Reagan wanted to talk about a successful launch in his State of the Union that night.

Cheater5 · 01-30-2016, 08:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cave Johnson

Eh, it probably went higher up.

Reagan wanted to talk about a successful launch in his State of the Union that night.

Right. Reagan ordered the code red.

I am the walrus, goo goo g'joob.

Earthling · 01-30-2016, 08:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobBlake

some of those astro. are scary similar and logical in progression of age lol.. however.. whats the advantage of faking a death lol

It got me out of having to go to my wifes high-school reunion...

**Baby Lee** · 01-30-2016, 10:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cave Johnson

Eh, it probably went higher up.

Reagan wanted to talk about a successful launch in his State of the Union that night.

Don't be a Loon.

Mennonite · 01-30-2016, 10:42 AM

=

Old Rod Taylor?

Say what you will about the guys ability to make a (non exploding) space shuttle - the dude knew how to make a time machine like nobody this side of Doc Brown.

**notorious** · 01-30-2016, 10:53 AM

The Time Machine (1960) is one of my 8 year-old daughter's favorite movies.

Mennonite · 01-30-2016, 11:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by notorious

The Time Machine (1960) is one of my 8 year-old daughter's favorite movies.

It's a classic. I've watched it countless times over the years.

Johnny Vegas · 01-30-2016, 02:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by listopencil

No, it's completely relevant. It shows that people can bear a resemblance to one another when there is obviously no connection between them. So the burden of proof is on you to show that those are the astronauts in the "older" pictures. If you can't then it's just more conspiracy theory nonsense.

they all share the same names. theres one thing.

**Rain Man** · 01-30-2016, 04:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by listopencil

No, it's completely relevant. It shows that people can bear a resemblance to one another when there is obviously no connection between them. So the burden of proof is on you to show that those are the astronauts in the "older" pictures. If you can't then it's just more conspiracy theory nonsense.

Logically, they would try to make them look different via plastic surgery. We should be trying to find people who don't look at all like the astronauts. Like John Goodman, for example. if you want to get at the root of the conspiracy, figure out when John Goodman arrived on the scene relative to when the astronauts disappeared.

01-28-2016, 07:02 PM
listopencil Immanentize The Eschaton Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: In Partibus Infidelium Casino cash: $1655880	30 Years After Explosion, Challenger Engineer Still Blames Himself Thirty years ago, as the nation mourned the loss of seven astronauts on the space shuttle Challenger, Bob Ebeling was steeped in his own deep grief. The night before the launch, Ebeling and four other engineers at NASA contractor Morton Thiokol had tried to stop the launch. Their managers and NASA overruled them. That night, he told his wife, Darlene, "It's going to blow up." When Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff, Ebeling and his colleagues sat stunned in a conference room at Thiokol's headquarters outside Brigham City, Utah. They watched the spacecraft explode on a giant television screen and they knew exactly what had happened. Three weeks later, Ebeling and another engineer separately and anonymously detailed to NPR the first account of that contentious pre-launch meeting. Both were despondent and in tears as they described hours of data review and arguments. The data showed that the rubber seals on the shuttle's booster rockets wouldn't seal properly in cold temperatures and this would be the coldest launch ever. Ebeling, now 89, decided to let NPR identify him this time, on the 30th anniversary of the Challenger explosion. "I was one of the few that was really close to the situation," Ebeling recalls. "Had they listened to me and wait[ed] for a weather change, it might have been a completely different outcome." We spoke in the same house, kitchen and living room that we spoke in 30 years ago, when Ebeling didn't want his name used or his voice recorded. He was afraid he would lose his job. "I think the truth has to come out," he says about the decision to speak privately then. "NASA ruled the launch," he explains. "They had their mind set on going up and proving to the world they were right and they knew what they were doing. But they didn't." A presidential commission found flaws in the space agency's decision-making process. But it's still not clear why NASA was so anxious to launch without delay. The space shuttle program had an ambitious launch schedule that year and NASA wanted to show it could launch regularly and reliably. President Ronald Reagan was also set to deliver the State of the Union address that evening and reportedly planned to tout the Challenger launch. Whatever the reason, Ebeling says it didn't justify the risk. "There was more than enough [NASA officials and Thiokol managers] there to say, 'Hey, let's give it another day or two,' " Ebeling recalls. "But no one did." Ebeling retired soon after Challenger. He suffered deep depression and has never been able to lift the burden of guilt. In 1986, as he watched that haunting image again on a television screen, he said, "I could have done more. I should have done more." He says the same thing today, sitting in a big easy chair in the same living room, his eyes watery and his face grave. The data he and his fellow engineers presented, and their persistent and sometimes angry arguments, weren't enough to sway Thiokol managers and NASA officials. Ebeling concludes he was inadequate. He didn't argue the data well enough. A religious man, this is something he has prayed about for the past 30 years. "I think that was one of the mistakes that God made," Ebeling says softly. "He shouldn't have picked me for the job. But next time I talk to him, I'm gonna ask him, 'Why me? You picked a loser.' " I reminded him of something his late colleague and friend Roger Boisjoly once told me. Boisjoly was the other Thiokol engineer who spoke anonymously with NPR 30 years ago. He came to believe that he and Ebeling and their colleagues did all they could. "We were talking to the right people," Boisjoly told me. "We were talking to the people who had the power to stop that launch." "Maybe," Ebeling says with a weak wave as I leave. "Maybe Roger's right." http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-w...blames-himself
Posts: 56,073

01-29-2016, 10:25 PM	#76
listopencil Immanentize The Eschaton Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: In Partibus Infidelium Casino cash: $1655880	Maggie Gyllenhaal and Rose Wilder Lane __________________ Good friends we have had, oh, good friends we've lost...along the way. In this great future, you can't forget your past. So dry your tears, I say.
Posts: 56,073

01-29-2016, 10:26 PM	#77
listopencil Immanentize The Eschaton Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: In Partibus Infidelium Casino cash: $1655880	http://justsomething.co/24-celebriti...from-the-past/ Just go look at all of them. I'm too lazy to post a bunch of pics. __________________ Good friends we have had, oh, good friends we've lost...along the way. In this great future, you can't forget your past. So dry your tears, I say.
Posts: 56,073

01-29-2016, 10:57 PM	#79
Dayze Resident Glue Sniffer Join Date: Nov 2003 Casino cash: $4689358	some of the pictures etc.....it's SO obvious they're not the same people. Good lord. ...and this, coming from a guy who enjoys watching Ancient Aliens.......... yeah. __________________ Life is 99% inspiration, 1% Perspiration, and 1% Attention to Detial. RIP & Godspeed: Saccoppo Lonewolf Ed Fire Me Boy
Posts: 37,381

01-30-2016, 12:49 AM	#80
RobBlake Banned Join Date: Aug 2013 Casino cash: $10011127	some of those astro. are scary similar and logical in progression of age lol.. however.. whats the advantage of faking a death lol
Posts: 7,127

01-30-2016, 10:42 AM	#86
Mennonite Veteran Join Date: Jun 2014 Casino cash: $10258572	= Old Rod Taylor? Say what you will about the guys ability to make a (non exploding) space shuttle - the dude knew how to make a time machine like nobody this side of Doc Brown.
Posts: 3,378

01-30-2016, 10:53 AM	#87
notorious Supporter Join Date: May 2005 Location: Who knows? Casino cash: $2355884	The Time Machine (1960) is one of my 8 year-old daughter's favorite movies.
Posts: 83,797