I met Bill Readdy back in 1990 when I was a Navy lieutenant on shore duty working as the editor of Approach, the Naval Safety Center’s aviation safety magazine. I was working on a story about how NASA’s culture had changed around matters of safety in the wake of the Challenger mishap.
Years later, it was “Reads” who first briefed the nation about another NASA tragedy, the Columbia mishap.
Now Endeavor’s in the news because of damage to tiles on the bottom of the craft. At this writing NASA engineers have elected to “do no harm” and leave the tiles as is, and there’s no reason to believe the shuttle is less than 100 percent ready to fly a safe profile back to earth.
But the coverage has NASA in the news and folks, like the staff at DT, are asking questions about the health of the shuttles and the space program at large.
I can think of no better guy to explain what’s going on at NASA than Bill Readdy. And I can think of no better way to spend a Sunday than listening to the “Editor’s Desk” interview with him here.
– Ward
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Still struggling because nobody in the media has investigated or reported on the fact that, prior to a change in the chemical components used to apply foam to the main fuel tank, there were no serious problems with foam impacting the under body of the shuttle. I don’t want to seem like a moon-bat, but could someone from the media ask a direct question of some credible person at NASA and get a straight answer: “Would switching back to the flourocarbon foam and foam process reduce the incidence of in-flight foam failures?” It’s just that easy.
Hope is not a strategy, and NASA’s hope that another orbiter strike won’t be severe enough to prevent a repair in flight is a loser from the outset.
They are relying on a little more than faith as part of an overall accident prevention program.
Another strike of the RCC leading edge by a 1.5 lb piece of foam can stop this program dead in it’s tracks and shatter any credibility NASA has left on this issue and crew/vehicle safety.
The last time our government relied on hope for a strategy resulted in a good part of lower Manhattan being destroyed and the Pentagon in flames.
We deserve better.