Safety Chief at Odds With NASA

Safety Chief at Odds With NASA

NASA's top safety official objected to the agency's decision to press ahead with the launch of Discovery next month without fixing a potentially catastrophic foam-shedding problem, but said he won't appeal _ and won't resign in protest _ because he does not believe the shuttle astronauts' lives are in danger.

"It's a done deal," NASA chief safety officer Bryan O'Connor said in a Monday night interview with The Associated Press.

O'Connor, a former shuttle commander, said he was uncomfortable with going ahead with the launch on July 1 but accepted the decision because NASA has plans in place to have the crew take refuge in the international space station and wait for a rescue mission if foam punches too big a hole in the shuttle's heat protection system.

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I found this interesting:

He and shuttle program manager Wayne Hale, who have spent decades in the program, said they could not recall a previous instance in which a launch proceeded over the objections of the safety office.

Does anyone get the sense we're pushing for the manufacture of feel good events?