Xah Lee's Unixism

[Rupert Pigott]

Larry Elmore wrote:

[SNIP]

> The gaskets wouldn't have been necessary if the SRBs had been built in a 
> single piece instead of having to be assembled from seven sections. The 
> problem was that one-piece SRBs are too big for land transport, and for 
> political reasons (i.e., buying support), the SRBs were to be built in 
> Utah by Morton-Thiokol. Ergo, multi-section SRBs with gaskets "required".

I would hope that Morton Thiokol's experience at building a diverse
range of rockets might have been a factor in the decision too. I
suppose they might have systematically fired every rocket scientist
they had (wouldn't put it past a PHB) to save cost though. :)

Too many ifs & butts. IMO. Folks caved to political pressure, but
the blame doesn't just lie with the rank and file. The folks
applying the pressure from the top would have known full well what
they were doing. If they didn't they were unfit for the task, if
not negligent anyways.

Cheers,
Rupert