jcwinterton (06/29/82)
Russians and Americans and military hardware orbiting concurrently is a worry? My god, what a paranoid thought! There is all kinds of military hardware up there.
BATALI@OZ.AI.MIT.EDU (John Batali) (02/22/86)
I'm sure that there are people working for NASA on this mailing list. Are there people at the Marshall Space Flight Center? What about Morton Thiokol? If so, why haven't we heard from them? The latest word (Feb 21) is that the engineers at MT were opposed to going ahead with the launch because of the severe cold but were overruled by MT and NASA management. Presumabely some of these folks have interesting information and may even want to present their side of the story. I'll tell you why we haven't heard from them -- because they have been told not to say anything. The paper movers are covering their asses. NASA would prefer that the accident be an engineering mistake rather than a management one. Is this coverup extending even to the net? Anyone from NASA or MT care to respond? I dare you.
al@vger.UUCP ( Informatix) (02/25/86)
In article <860222000126.1.BATALI@RICKY.AI.MIT.EDU>, BATALI@OZ.AI.MIT.EDU (John Batali) writes: > > I'm sure that there are people working for NASA on this mailing list. > > I'll tell you why we haven't heard from them -- because they have been > told not to say anything. The paper movers are covering their asses. > NASA would prefer that the accident be an engineering mistake rather > than a management one. > All NASA employees and contractors have been specifical directed not to speculate on the accident. Given the rapid spread of inaccuracies this is probably a good policy. NASA would prefer that the cause of the accident be found and fixed as quickly as possible. Last time you made a serious mistake did you try to cover it up? Be honest. Of course people will try to cover their asses, they are human you know. The problem is not to wreck vengence, the problem is to resume space flight.
henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (02/25/86)
> I'm sure that there are people working for NASA on this mailing list. > Are there people at the Marshall Space Flight Center? What about Morton > Thiokol? If so, why haven't we heard from them? ... > > I'll tell you why we haven't heard from them -- because they have been > told not to say anything. The paper movers are covering their asses. > NASA would prefer that the accident be an engineering mistake rather > than a management one. Don't be silly. You'll find the same behavior after, say, a major air crash, even when there is no possibility of a "coverup". The reason that everyone is keeping quiet is because everyone is scared to death of the US's litigation-crazy lawyers. Nobody wants to get sued. Or fired for exposing their employer to a possibility of being sued. I believe there has already been at least one incident of somebody getting fired for talking out of turn to the press. (Incidentally, he was *not* exposing a "coverup"; he was simply shooting off his mouth to the effect that it couldn't possibly have been his company's fault, and pointing the finger at somebody else, at a time when he couldn't possibly have had the evidence to justify such an accusation.) This is quite apart from the obvious fact that most of the people who might comment clearly realize that they do not have complete information, and hence could not present a complete story without making a lot of possibly-incorrect assumptions. Protecting the innocent generally takes priority over finding the guilty. (This is not to say that there aren't some guilty parties to be found.) -- Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry
eugene@ames.UUCP (Eugene Miya) (03/01/86)
Batali wrote: > > The paper movers are covering their asses. To which Henry wrote: > You'll find the same behavior after, say, a major air > crash, even when there is no possibility of a "coverup". > everyone is keeping quiet is because everyone is scared to death of the > US's litigation-crazy lawyers. This isn't space, but I cross refed to aviation. Does anyone know what's happened to the former President of Japan Airlines? I know he resigned after apologies to all relatives for the recent 747 disaster. Should I have cross-refed to one more newsgroup? Or did some other company pick him up? Send mail, don't follow-up, interested parties can ask me. --eugene miya NASA Ames Research Center {hplabs,ihnp4,dual,hao,decwrl,allegra}!ames!aurora!eugene eugene@ames-nas.ARPA
caf@omen.UUCP (Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX) (03/02/86)
In article <6430@utzoo.UUCP> henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) writes: >Protecting the innocent generally takes priority over finding the guilty. Except for TV Network news.
friesen@psivax.UUCP (Stanley Friesen) (03/05/86)
In article <350@vger.UUCP> al@vger.UUCP ( Informatix) writes: > > NASA would prefer that the cause of >the accident be found and fixed as quickly as possible. > The problem is not to wreck vengence, the problem is to resume >space flight. Ditto to this in spades! I couldn't care less whose *fault* the accident was. Lets forget all about *blaming* anyone, there is no more useless activity in the human reportoire. The thing to do is find out the cause of the accident, fix it, and get going again as fast as possible. Is anyone out there with authority listening? -- Sarima (Stanley Friesen) UUCP: {ttidca|ihnp4|sdcrdcf|quad1|nrcvax|bellcore|logico}!psivax!friesen ARPA: ttidca!psivax!friesen@rand-unix.arpa