REM@MIT-MC@sri-unix (11/18/82)
From: Robert Elton Maas <REM at MIT-MC> I'm getting weary of NASA officials calling something a "complete success" after an obviously major aspect of the flight was a failure. That space walk is important! It can wait, but then the info to be derived must wait, there's less time to process the info for when it's needed, there's less confidence in the equipment, and if an emergency comes up in STS-6 there's no prior practice at all whereas if this had been a success and STS-6 had an emergency the spacewalk would have had prior practice from STS-5. I can accept "virtual total success" for a Voyager that returns so much new info beyond our wildest expectations (a mission to Jupiter is extended to Saturn and only one piece of equipment half-breaks-down, and we discover thousands of ringlets), but I cannot accept "total success" in STS-5 when one of the four major activities fails completely (the four are: launch&recovery, deplying commercial satellites, on-board scientific/engineering experiments, and spacewalk trial).