Xah Lee's Unixism

[Rupert Pigott]

Larry Elmore wrote:
> Rupert Pigott wrote:

[SNIP]

> http://www.ae.utexas.edu/~lehmanj/ethics/srb.htm
> 
> "Competition for the SRB Contract"
> 
> "Four companies bid for the contract to design and manufacture the solid 
> rocket boosters (SRBs). Aerojet Solid bid the program at $655 million, 
> United Technologies at $710 million, Morton Thiokol at $710 million, and 
> Lockheed at $714 million. All the bids were relatively similar in both 
> price and technology. Based on cost, the NASA advisory panel recommended 
> that the contract be awarded to Aerojet; they believed that money could 
> be saved without sacrificing technical quality by choosing the lowest 
> bid. NASA administrator Dr. James Fletcher overruled this recommendation 

[SNIP]

Even if hypothetically superior Aerojet boosters were used I would
bet a life's salary that mismanagement would nail them in the end...

Consider this : If the tables were turned and an Aerojet booster
exploded in the sky I'll bet the armchair QBs would be asking why
were Aerojet chosen over Morton-Thiokol who had more experience of
building large solid-fuel rockets.


Cheers,
Rupert